This story is not from Japan, but I couldn't resist...
On Tuesday, police in Seoul, Korea enlisted the help of a small robot to track down a fugitive purse-snatcher hiding out in the city's sewage system. The 57-year-old suspect was on the run after snatching a woman's purse at a hospital. Witnesses to the crime tried to detain the man, but he wriggled out of his clothes -- all of them -- and managed to escape into the city's sewage system through a 1-meter (3.3 feet) diameter pipe.
Police located the man four hours later with the help of a 6-wheeled, camera-equipped sewage pipe inspection robot able to broadcast images for up to 150 meters (nearly 500 feet). Once they apprehended the man, who appeared to have lost his way in the darkness of the cramped pipes, the police returned him to the hospital, where he received treatment for hypothermia. The temperature in Seoul on Tuesday was 1 degree Celsius (34 degrees Fahrenheit).
At the end of this video news clip, the police ask the man why he stripped off his clothes, to which he replies, "Leave me alone. I'm not feeling well."
[Sources: Chosun Ilbo, TUF]
Madeline
That is just too special for words.
[]Nadine
Urghh... he hid out naked in a sewer line?? I could think of better places to hide out.. you'd need a serious scrub down after that. ._.
[]Dan
1 escaped purse snatcher: dime a dozen
1 cold day: gift from mother nature
1 drain inspection robot: $50,000
catching a purse snatcher naked in the drains on a freezing day knowing his goolies would be up around his tonsils with the robot
priceless
[]Jacob
Nice looking robot. Looks like a tractor, though. Seems reasonable for the sewer. You don't need those flying robots what in Nightmare City 2035.
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