Crime City in Tochigi paints strawberries on drainage grates to deter thieves

A city in Tochigi has taken an unusual approach to combating drainage grate theft. Local officials in Moka have painted images of the region's famous strawberries onto the grates in areas prone to theft.


And those strawberries will deter thieves because.....?

In the city, there has been a string of grate thefts: 25 pieces in six cases in fiscal 2022, 40 grates on 25 occasions in fiscal 2023, and 23 in 11 cases as of the end of June this fiscal year. Without covers, vehicles and pedestrians are at risk of falling into the gutters, so measures to prevent theft were urgently needed. One method to prevent theft is to use metal fittings to fix grates in place, but this is both costly and difficult to maintain. Therefore, the city decided to mark grates with spray paint, which is less costly and easier to manage. The markings depict a design of a strawberry, of which the city is the largest producer in Japan.

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thomas said:

A city in Tochigi has taken an unusual approach to combating drainage grate theft. Local officials in Moka have painted images of the region's famous strawberries onto the grates in areas prone to theft.


And those strawberries will deter thieves because.....?

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Photo credit: Moka Municipal Government via Mainichi​

Japan city paints local specialty strawberries on drain grates to stop their recurring theft - The Mainichi

MOKA, Tochigi -- The government of this eastern Japan city has painted the local specialty of strawberries on the drainage grates of road gutters as a

mainichi.jp

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I wonder what is the theft incentive? Selling for scrap metal or some other purpose??

mdchachi said:

I wonder what is the theft incentive? Selling for scrap metal or some other purpose??

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Scrap metal. Another common target are copper cables at solar panel plants.

thomas said:

Scrap metal. Another common target are copper cables at solar panel plants.

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That's a common problem in the U.S. I'm a little surprised this is an issue in Japan.

thomas said:

And those strawberries will deter thieves because.....?

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The thought is likely that a scrap yard might not accept them if there is some evidence of where they came from. If there were no markings how would the scrap yard know that the person was not the owner of the grate in question. At least there would be some plausible deniability on their side. But if the city publicly marks it's grates and the scrappers in the area know, or are notified by the city, about it then it removes that excuse. A person showing up with a bunch of grates to scrap, that all happen to have a strawberry painted on them, would be more than could easily be turned a blind eye to. Especially if the police start checking local scrap yards for the missing grates.