[ Asahi Shinbun : 23rd June, morning edition ]
Saitama Police have revealed that a 46 year-old man taken in dead drunk at around 2:20am on 19th June, later set fire to his shirt (after taking it off) using a lighter he had on him. Thanks to surveillance cameras the fire was promptly extinguished; the man claimed that he had set the fire because it was ‘cold’. As there was no damage to the building, the man was released and allowed to return home the same day.
According to the police, when he was taken into custody, the man’s belt was removed for safety reasons, but officers did not notice that he had a lighter on his person. A directive has been issued to all 39 police stations in the prefecture to conduct thorough body checks on all individuals taken into custody.
[ Trans. note : Saitama prefecture has been in the news almost continuously for the past few years with seemingly endless violent crimes. No-one who believes what they read in the newspapers would willingly move to Saitama, such is the apparent level of crime there. ]
