So I live in a university dorm in a first floor. I just got off the phone with someone from the university staff and they told me someone was caught stealing from my laundry line last night. Upon checking my laundry some underwear and a towel of mine was missing. Now they want me to speak the police and give a statement. Coming to Japan I knew this was a thing but I never thought it would happen to me. Being a guy I thought this wouldn’t have a big effect on my mental but I just feel disgusted. I would appreciate any advice from people who have experienced anything like this. I know people suffer way worse stuff than this on the daily but I wanted to vent a bit.
36 comments
下着泥棒 strikes again!
Your privacy was violated in a particularly disgusting, disturbing way. You’re entitled to feel bothered and should, even though society would tell you to “man up” or not to discuss it.
This is why women aren’t recommended to live on the first floor…
Even before coming to Japan, I’ve always had my underwear hung to dry inside. Creeps are everywhere.
I though stockings should be fine so I hung them up with my other clothes on the third floor balcony with an open view of the street. Yep, got stolen. Had to report to the apartment management who called the koban.
They increased patrol rounds after that but after that, no more theft. Of course, I never hang stockings outside anymore.
Sadly the only thing we can do about this thing is to not hang our undies outside 🙁
Hopefully it was stolen by a cute hanako
Somewhat ironically, I’ve never had underwear go missing in Japan (that I’ve noticed, at least) but it did happen to me once in the US.
I know women having their underwear stolen is a thing in Japan but I’ve never heard of it happening to a guy before. Who did they catch?
Will be available in vending machines tomorrow
I once had a student find her mothers underwear in her drawer. She went to return them to her mothers room and her mother said they weren’t hers.
Seems an underwear thief actually dropped underwear while trying to manage the balcony and they had a complete strangers underwear in their drawer.
Pay it forward, steal another dude’s undies!
Had me in the 1st half, not gonna lie.
This is peak Jlife
Instead of being upset about it, because it won’t change what happened, or bring your undies back, just think “maybe the person needed them more than me.”
Soooooooo glad I wasn’t caught.
That sold for 20,000 yen on Merucari.
Hugs! (the following is a joke) Stop buying sexy underwear, man!
Imagine some ojisan stealing it
Not a real solution, but if you can’t move, you may want to put a camera ?
Enter into contact with the person, make him cough up some money to not go to the police.
Then make a deal with him, to supply him in underwear once per month against money
Profit
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Some of my underwear was stolen 21 years ago (already!!!) when I was living in Osaka (first floor, small apartment building) I had a fever so I left my clothes to dry outside (I’d usually take them
Inside at night or whenever I wasn’t at home) and the next morning I got the surprise.
At first I couldn’t believe it, I actually searched for my underwear inside the washing machine xd Then I was angry, then speechless and in the end I could start making jokes about it (it took me a loooong yime though). I’m afraid there’s not much to tell you, just that in the future maaaaaybe you’ll be able to at least make jokes about it.
It’s crap Japan hasn’t changed much regarding this. Sorry you had to go through this.
Sorry you got yourself a local creep. Moving forward, don’t rent a place below the third floor. If people are dedicated enough to climb 3 floors to get your stuff, however creepy, you probably have bigger problems than a local crotch sniffer.
I had my bike stolen and my car keyed, which isn’t the same as your situation, but there’s still a level of violation that leaves a disgusting feeling inside… and the way police handle situations here compound the situation even more.
I don’t have much to offer than my sympathy and prayers.
I will say that I always feared this happening and I purposefully bought a dryer just to avoid hanging out my clothes. There’s too many weirdos out here.
Doesn’t matter who you are, live on the first floor and your undies are gonna get stolen. I’m a big dude, not attractive, and I only dry shit I don’t want outside. I think of it as a pervy donation. Fuck it.
“Shitagidorobo.” Panty thief. That’s a thing here. Disturbing.
Welcome to japan
Wasn’t me.
This is the reason I paid for a all in one washing/drying machine. The ¥1,000 was not enough for my brassiere.
Once I thought that someone stole my Pikachu themed underwear. Shit was expensive, I was angry. I peeked above my balcony by reflex, and saw my pantsu inside of the electrical transformer enclosed area. I probably didn’t attach it safely enough to my laundry cord and it went with the wind.
The concierge wasn’t there so I couldn’t access it, and when I checked the following day, the underwear wasn’t there anymore and the concierge didn’t know about it. So eh, stolen anyway ?
If there’s one thing Japanese men love, it’s a good pair of panties. I’m sure you’re aware panty theft and general panties-obsession is a quite prevalent.
This reminds me of a couple of particular hilarious tales of such events from quite a few years ago, [in which the perps used fishing rods, sometimes with custom-made hooks](https://japantoday.com/category/crime/man-who-fished-underwear-from-veranda-arrested-in-kobe?comment-order=oldest), to literally ‘fish’ panties from the balconies below them 😂😂
[Or this gentleman who had a modest 500 pairs of panties](https://japantoday.com/category/crime/man-reeled-in-over-fishing-for-womens-underwear) in his apartment from his uhh… Pro Bass Expeditions…
Sometimes people like to put hot sauce in their food that’s being stolen. I wonder if anyone has tried putting rash powder on a pair of underwear.
Who leaves their laundry out overnight?
Ooof sorry to hear. Consider hanging your underwear inside in the future if you have the room to do so.
The woman who rented a 1st floor apartment the other day and was on here asking if it was a smart move or not is reading this post with dread in their heart.
If anyone wants to steal my 5+ year old underwear that have more holes than fabric they’re welcome to them. Maybe it will finally motivate me to buy new ones.
Even though this person’s been caught, it’s unlikely that they’ll stay in custody so please take care.
More than a decade ago, I was studying abroad at a university in Kyoto and living in a dorm with other international students. To explain the layout a bit, my room was on the first floor, though it was a tiny bit elevated from the ground. Outside the first floor room windows, there was this kind of walkway, I suppose maybe for maintenance or window cleaning. It wasn’t really accessible, but it wasn’t inaccessible either. You would have to go through the bike parking lot and squeeze through a pretty narrow space to climb up, but it was doable (not that any of us ever did.) The showers and baths were in the basement of the building. Though the showers were underground, the women’s shower room had a window with a sunken pit on the other side where an air conditioning unit was. There was a metal ladder that gave access to the area for maintenance, but no one ever went there, obviously. Toward the end of my year abroad, there started being whisperings of human shadows outside the window of the girls’ shower room intermittently. No one thought much about it, I guess we just assumed it was maintenance or the dorm owners, but it creeped some people out.
A few days later, the girl in the room beside mine mentioned that the screen on her room window was on the wrong side when she woke up one day. She always kept it on the same side, but it was on the other side. A few nights after that, I was in my room watching a movie with the lights off. Suddenly, a human shadow walks past my window toward my neighbour’s room. After getting over the initial shock, I opened my window and stuck my head out. I see a guy wearing black just standing outside my neighbour’s window fiddling with it. Next thing I know, I’m screaming at him in English and he just bolts back the way he came and disappears. I run downstairs, find the building owners and tell them what I saw. They called the cops, but he was long gone. Everyone who had mentioned seeing the shadows in the shower reported it to the police when they came. I moved out not long after, but I think they had plans to block access to that walkway, remove the ladder to the air con unit and install security lights and cameras.
No clue if he ever came back, but in our case, we weren’t even hanging laundry outside. This was just some creeper who was fixated on a dorm full of gaijin. I’ve heard similar stories over the years from other foreigners, so please be careful. I personally am never open to first floor apartments as a woman in Japan for exactly this reason. Hell, even if I were a man, I think I’d be uncomfortable. Foreigners are catnip to some pervs.