Monday, March 19, 2007

Take my gold in Takayama

I've actually been to this town, the fact that they were the victims of a museum heist is a pretty weird coincidence. I'm not sure how something like this could happen, I certainly wouldn't agree to a job where I was the only person standing between the general public and 1.7 million dollars worth of gold. Where I volunteer, we have a discovery learning exhibit on right now where kids can dig up fake artifacts and fake gold nuggets in a sandbox type area, even that's being pocketed like it's going out of style. People will take anything that's not nailed down or under plexi-glass.
I don't know how this museum's insurance company let them get away with that kind of security, I know the crime rate is lower in Japan, but seriously. I can think of one good place for the police to start their hunt, the Fort-Knox-like gold depository in the hills above Takayama owned by that crazy cult we visited when we were there.


TOKYO (Reuters) - Three masked men on Sunday snatched a block of gold bullion valued at roughly $1.71 million from a Japanese museum that allowed visitors to touch the 221-pound piece.

Shoving aside a woman museum worker, the three then fled with an accomplice who had been serving as lookout at the museum in Takayama, a small city in central Japan.

"There were no sensors or burglar alarms, since the museum allowed its visitors to touch the gold as they wanted," a police spokesman said.

He could not explain why the gold had been displayed in the museum.

3 comments:

Miss Ash said...

So very odd that they would let the general public touch the gold. I wonder who the burglars can sell it to though?

Tokyo Tintin said...

Ah, Japan...

Only there could something like this happen. They probably apoligised to the museum worker as they pushed her out of the way.

Jennifer said...

You're right Ash, that's actually a consideration when you're making security plans for a museum. You'd need a willing buyer before you'd try to steal most of what you'd find in a museum. Most people who would buy a museum quality artifact would want to own it legally and be able to display it.
Gold however, can be converted into something marketable more easily than a Monet, so it's a little more succeptible to theft.
TT, you're right, they're so wacky. What was the name of that wacky cult again? Feel free to write it in Pig Latin or something so they can't self google, see what we wrote about them and hunt us down.