IBARAKI (TR) – Ibaraki Prefectural Police arrested two Chinese brothers for stealing cabbages from a field in Shimotsuma City.
At around 2:30 p.m., a man called police from a field in Minaba to report that he had caught two men stealing cabbages, reports TV Asahi (Dec. 22).
When police rushed to the scene, they found Zhou Chengqing, 45, and Zhou Chengyi, 36, in the custody of a male acquaintance of the owner of the field.
According to police, the pair were found loading eight cabbages into the bed of a truck. The vegetables have a value of around 3,200 yen.
Upon their arrests on suspicion of theft, the two suspects denied the charges.
There have been a series of cabbage thefts in the surrounding area, including the pilfering of around 1,200 cabbages from a field in the town of Yachiyo on December 18.
With location of the farm in Yachiyo is about 4 kilometers west of the field in Minaba. Police are now investigating whether the cases are related.