Man Arrested for Simultaneous Theft of All 64 "One Piece" Volumes

Bookstore pillaged for popular pirate manga

Police in Shizuoka apprehended a 26-year-old in Fujieda as the suspected thief of all 64 volumes of One Piece

 

Source Yomiuri Online points out that stacking 64 volumes reaches a height of over three feet (1 meter) and weighs nearly 22 pounds (10 kilograms). 

 

You can definitely fit that in a Boston Bag, though, which is what two employees noticed the suspicious-looking fellow carrying the evening of December 23rd. However, the store was busy, so it wasn't until the next morning they noticed the shelf that used to contain One Piece was empty. When they checked the security camera tapes they could see him cram the manga by ten volume handfuls into the bag and then walk calmly out of the store. 

 

Police are now also investigating the theft of some other popular manga, such as Hunter x Hunter, from the same store during the month of December. 

 

 

When questioned, the man mentioned, "My goal was to sell them." Apparently One Piece is so popular in Japan that he was able to flip the copies to a secondhand shop for nearly retail price and make 23,000 yen (almost US $300). In fact, stealing One Piece to sell back to used book stores is a crime that occurs fairly often—there was another case involving two boys in Hyogo prefecture last August.

 

The second hand shop keeper who ended up unknowingly buying up the stolen volumes in this case was quoted, "There are people who take care not to get books they buy dirty and then sell them after they read them. I never would have thought they were stolen!"

 

via My Game News Flash

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OnCe Piece?
Fixed and fixed.
Seems like the Japanese really love their manga. BTW grabbing ten volumes at a time, that guy must have massive hands!
Nope, it would be fairly easy.
Japanese manga are smaller than English versions. Grabbing 10 Japanese volumes at once is like grabbing 6-7 English volumes.
looks like it happened again.
For once it's not a digital downloading arrest lol...

I also guess he's never seen Ocean's 11... you could easily apply what they did there to this situation... although there is going to be that magical "???" step before the final step of "Profit" where you somehow figure out how to get your massive investment back in pulling the heist with only $300 worth of books.
Lol i agree
Haha your comment made m day! ^_^

But seriously One Piece? It's been around forever! And it still isn't done? Geez, when do the "creative" juices stop?
OMG! This is a disgrace to all Onepiece fans! ...at least that's what i feel xD
wait wasn't this happened last week or so ago?

oh... different stupid person -_-
well i will say this in the us they can charge u multiple times the item. so 300 us can become 1200 easy you have to pay. then u might have to take a class on the crap. pay probation fees serve time in jail. do community service and every thing else they might make you do not to mention jail time up to 4 months. so in short that guy could have just cost him self around 2 thousand dollars or so. us wise LOL
rofl thats so crazy
I am next to be arrested because of tis XD
"My goal was to sell them" kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Yeah, nice excuse for that second hand store owner... the odds that someone would come in with the entire series in one go and all of it looking brand new would strike most people as suspicious.
actually, i find it believable. ive got tons of books and they're all in perfect condition. (yes ive read them)
I don't think so. I keep all my books looking new or quite close to it, you wouldn't tell the difference. If the book is part of a series, I don't generally sell them back until I've finished the series.
I suppose he just wanted all his manga in one piece.
You just made my day, I can't stop laughing
*clapclapclap*
Hahaha You get 10 internets. :>
At least he didn't try to steal all of Golgo 13...He'd need two bags for that. ^^()
Maybe his plan was to steal the 10 volumes and sell them to the secondhand shop for the $300 and then perhaps a day later steal all 10 volumes back from the secondhand store and go sell them to another secondhand store for the same price. If he said that then Id think he put some thought into it.
But... why One Piece? Its not even that good. O.o Unless the manga is much better than the anime...
Well 250 million copies sold says otherwise, its the most critically acclaimed series of Shounen Jump and also the best selling (and most popular) manga series of all-time. The last few volumes actually broke a few records in Japan.
You really need to not assume things wrongly, kitsuneshoujo. It's pretty much been the top selling Shounen Jump manga series since 1998, keeping said spot since then. The characters all have personality, goals, beliefs, reasoning, and what have you. The world is vast and populated with such colorful casts of characters.

You can often find yourself feeling for the characters. Hell, any series that makes you nearly cry during the death of a PIRATE SHIP has got to be doing something right, you know?

If you don't mind spoilers... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuVMvzz4g_Q
How the hell can you even ask that? It doesn't matter whether you think it's good, there's no way you can not be aware of how popular it is.
The cliche saying of "Ignorant is a bliss" fits you well kitsuneshoujo.
the cost vs. entertainment time of manga is why i just watch the anime. at 10 bucks a piece for not even 30 minutes reading is way too much. but then, he just wanted to be a thief and resell them. he wasnt interested in the read. noob.
It takes me much longer to read a volume of manga than just 30 minutes. >__> You gotta enjoy it. Also, manga is cheap in Japan. It's like 420 yen ($5-6 USD) per volume.
Now THAT'S what I call a "pirate"...
waw... Im surprise they were able too.
well at least it was actual theft this time...
For all the manga he could be caught stealing, it had to be One Piece?
If I'm stealing manga, it's not going to be One Piece...just sayin'
Didn't the second hand shop owner get suspicious about all of the volumes still in their shrink wrap? When I go to J-town and buy manga at Kinokuniya or the Jungle, the volumes come shrinkwrapped. If I go to Barnes and Noble the wrapping is gone and people will be sitting and reading the volumes, which I will do too, to see if the series is worth bothering with.
Many books (manga and otherwise) are sold un-shrink-wrapped. Also shrink-wrap is not very hard too remove.
In the UK, the only manga which is sold shrink wrapped is 18+ stuff.
I doubt they were shrink-wrapped. Usually only limited edition volumes are sealed at the factory.

Of course some shops add custom wrappings.
Balls of Steel on that one.
He chose some good manga to steal at least :P
Didn't he think stealing 64 volumes at one time would get him caught?!?!
23000 yen? hmmm.... i dont see it as being very profitable unless its in mass quantities and well i dont think its worth the trouble but i guess there are people out there in a rough spot that will do it... and world keeps turning :D
this guy took the song you are a pirate a little to far lol
HAHAHAHA HOW LAME
Why would you steal THOSE titles... honestly... moron.
lol, wow he must really love the one piece
if you were gonna get done for theft why didn't you steal something a lot better than readily available mainstream manga idiot?? :S
He did it to earn money, not for the entertainment factor!
300 bucks cha ching lol XD
Piracy: yes. Thievery: no.
LOL this just makes me wonder if he had enough time to read them all before he got busted (^o^)/
LadyAkatsuki, while One Piece's 250+ million copies makes it the best selling manga in Japan ever, to my knowledge, the global leader is still Dragon Ball with 300+ million. I doubt One Piece will ever surpass DB's global manga sales.
I'm more amazed that you can sell the books in Japan for almost retail price than I am that someone stole all 67 volumes.