Tokyo is a big and bustling city, so it’s not surprising that things get lost from time to time. Although judging from the figures just released by the Metropolitan Police Force, from time to time is probably something of an understatement. As last year 1.95 million unclaimed items were taken to the police.
Rather predictably the most common item was the humble umbrella, with 330,000 of them being handed in. More intriguing however was the staggering amount of unclaimed money. A whopping 2.4 billion yen (12,000,000 pound) in cash to be exact.
But one marked increase on the previous year was the amount of abandoned animals. The total number was 154, an increase of 42 from 2003. And even more bizarre is that turtles of all things topped the list, with 28 of them currently doing whatever turtles do in police stations across the capital. Other left behind animals included chickens, rabbits, and ferrets.
And I always thought that the ubiquitous branded bag that many Japanese walk around with was simply to hold make-up, magazines, and a mobile. Apparently not…
Roy says
I heard that someone lost a prosthetic leg on the train once..how someone does that is beyond me.
Brett says
Oh, that 2.4 billion yen is mine. It fell out of my jacket pocket the other day.
Nacente says
Hahaha with some many people, the money thing is “normal”, but chickens??? rabbits?? and prosthetic legs ??!! Really japanese LOL