Ge-ge-ge no nyobou 6/21

a.k.a. surprise, surprise, surprise

Fumie was hanging clothes on her bamboo clothes line. The mailman called from the gate, "Murai? You've got mail." Fumie thanked him and took the little bundle of letters and cards. She glanced at them and said, "Another one?"
( Guess who's coming to visit? )

He straightened up, and there was a long squeal of escaping gas. Shigeru said, "That was a good sound. Maybe from the tanuki dance hall?" Fumie said, "No, that was a wedding sound." Then Shigeru looked thoughtful. "You know, what if there was a ninja who didn't throw an exploding ball and escape in smoke, but just made gas?" Fumie chuckled. "I guess that would be funny." Shigeru nodded. "I think it could be."

<To be continued>

Nobody home but the video camera?

The news here in Japan had what I thought was a funny story. Apparently there's a group of teens who are being arrested for breaking and entering. There are at least five involved, and they were actually caught because of their modus operandi. Apparently one of the gang would ring the doorbell of a house, and if there was no answer, would then signal one of the others who would climb up and in through a back window.

The problem with this system is that several of the doorbells that they rang are the kind with built-in video cameras. The systems in these houses collected pictures which were easily connected with the burglaries. So whenever the crooks broke in, they left their pictures behind. Apparently the police had little trouble finding them with the helpful video snapshots.

Maybe they should ask the manufacturers for a kickback? It certainly seems to me like great advertising for having such video equipped doorbells.