Police were called to a kindergarten in Japan after a bunch of children's shoes were stolen and more were seemingly tossed around the property. Fifteen shoes were discovered missing from the Gosho Kodomo-en kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, on Nov. 6, followed by another six on Nov. 7, per the Washington Post. "We thought we were dealing with someone disturbed, someone with an obsession with children's shoes perhaps," says the deputy of Kasuya police station in Fukuoka, Hiroaki Inada, whose officers set up surveillance cameras in the hope of catching the thief in action. On the night of Nov. 11, they did, the Guardian reports. But according to Japan Today, "no charges will be filed, on account of wild animals not having criminal culpability."
The thief turned out to be a literal weasel, specifically a Siberian weasel, captured snagging a white shoe from a cubby before running off with the footwear in its mouth. "We were very relieved," kindergarten director Yoshihide Saito tells the Post. "The kids love the weasel. They think it's so cute when we show them the video." As the breed's fur is too thin to insulate young from the winter cold, the weasel is likely stealing the shoes to use in its nest, an expert tells the Japan Times. The kindergarten has taken to covering the cubbies with protective netting at night as the weasel remains on the loose. It's unclear whether it had any accomplices. As the stolen shoes have not been recovered, some young weasels nearby are likely staying warm, if not the children's feet. (More strange stuff stories.)
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