VOA新闻杂志2024--Mysterious Shoe Thief Identified

Mysterious Shoe Thief Identified

Police suspected someone was stealing shoes from a children's school in southwestern Japan. But a security¹ camera caught the thief in action. It was a weasel!

The small animal with a long body and short legs usually hunts for rats and rabbits. But this one was hunting for children's shoes.

After the children's shoes began disappearing, police put in place three security cameras in the school in Fukuoka in southern Japan. Soon after, recorded video showed a weasel with a small shoe in its mouth.

"It's great it turned out not to be a human being," Deputy² Police Chief Hiroaki Inada told The Associated Press recently. Teachers and parents had feared the thief could be a person with mental health problems.

Japanese often take their shoes off before entering homes. The shoes that disappeared were all slip-ons the children wore indoors³, stored in special spaces near the door.

Weasels are known to hide items. People who keep weasels as pets give them toys so they can hide them.

The weasel moved shoes around and took 15 of them before police were called. Six more were taken the following day. The weasel returned to steal one more shoe. The video of that theft was seen the next day.

The shoe-loving weasel only took the white indoor shoes made of canvas⁴, likely because they are light to carry.

"We were so relieved⁵," the school's kindergarten director Yoshihide Saito told Japanese broadcaster RKB Mainichi Broadcasting.

The children got a good laugh when they saw the weasel in the video.

Although the stolen shoes were never found, the remaining shoes are now safely behind netting that covers the storage spaces.

The weasel, which is believed to be wild, is still on the loose.

Words in This Story

slip-on - n. a shoe without fastenings

pet -- n. a domesticated⁶ animal kept for pleasure

relieved - adj. experiencing or showing relief especially from anxiety or emotions that have built up

kindergarten - n. a school or class for children who are usually five to six years old

netting -- n. material consisting of pieces of string or rope that are woven together

1 security   

n.安全，安全感；防护措施；保证(金)，抵押(品)；债券，证券

参考例句：

• A security guard brought him down with a flying tackle.一名保安人员飞身把他抱倒。
• There was tight security at the airport when the President's plane landed.总统的专机降落时，机场的保安措施很严密。

2 deputy   

n.代理人，代表，副职；adj.代理的，副的

参考例句：

• John will act as a deputy for me during my absence.我离开期间，约翰将代理我的职务。
• She is the deputy headmistress of the school.她是那所学校的代理校长。

3 indoors   

adv.(在)室内，(在)户内

参考例句：

• Because of the coldness of the weather we stayed indoors.我们因天气寒冷呆在家里。
• It is very cold outside,you'd better come indoors across the board.外面很冷，你们所有人最好都进屋。

4 canvas   

n.粗帆布，一块油画布

参考例句：

• The times that people used canvas boat have become history.人们用帆船的时代已成为历史。
• Smith painted an oil painting on the canvas.史密斯在画布上画了一幅油画。

5 relieved   

a.如释重负的

参考例句：

• You'll be relieved to know your jobs are safe. 现在知道你们的工作保住了，可以放心了。
• Your coming relieved me of the bother of writing a long letter. 你来了，省去我写长信的麻烦了。

6 domesticated   

adj.喜欢家庭生活的；（指动物）被驯养了的v.驯化( domesticate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He is thoroughly domesticated and cooks a delicious chicken casserole. 他精于家务，烹制的砂锅炖小鸡非常可口。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The donkey is a domesticated form of the African wild ass. 驴是非洲野驴的一种已驯化的品种。 来自《简明英汉词典》