Kitchen knife thief on the loose in Kobe

Kitchen knives are mysteriously disappearing in mass quantities from supermarkets and home improvement stores in and around Kobe, Japan.

As of the evening of Monday, Dec. 14th (JST), at least ninety-nine blades have gone missing from six different stores over the last several days, according to a news report from Mainichi Broadcast System out of the neighboring city of Osaka.

The first reported case came on the evening of the 12th, when an employee at a supermarket noticed nine knives had vanished. In the morning of the 13th, another supermarket reported ten missing. An employee there did not notice anything out of the usual while making rounds thirty minutes prior to the discovery. That afternoon a third store reported thirteen knives gone, followed by a fourth where an astounding thirty knives disappeared, bringing the total to sixty-two, according to the Yomiuri.

On the morning of the 14th, the manager of a home improvement center found seventeen knives gone. A separate home improvement store reported yet another eighteen are gone. The latest report is from a supermarket where two more knives were taken (along with more than another one-hundred articles), bringing the total to ninety-nine knives so far.

When exactly the knives were taken at each location is still unclear, but they were not heavily secured in their displays in any of the stores. There has been no evidence of overnight intrusion at any of the stores.

In all cases, the knives that are being taken are standard Japanese kitchen knifes ranging in price from ¥3,000-4,000 (about $33-45 USD). That brings the likely estimated value of all the reported stolen objects to over $3,000 USD.

Police believe the incidents are likely related and are investigating.

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