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| Image source: ANN News |
On Wednesday (Mar. 23), police in Saitama Prefecture, Japan, arrested a 33-year-old man for allegedly releasing live cockroaches into the audience at an anime song concert held at the Saitama Super Arena last August.
According to police, on the evening of August 28th, Kazuyuki Kawatani, a 33-year-old chef from Osaka Prefecture, scattered at least 20 to 30 live cockroaches into the audience of the Animelo Summer Live 2016 anime song concert, which was being held at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama City.
People who were in the audience at the concert told police that they witnessed the suspect release things that appeared to be insects as he was dancing to the live music.
Police have stated that the insects released at the event were Turkestan cockroaches, a type of flightless cockroach commonly sold as food for reptiles. They suspect that Kawatani bought the cockroaches at an event for buying and selling animals that was held earlier that day at the arena. It is unclear exactly how he managed to smuggle the cockroaches past the security check point people have to go through when entering the arena.
Kawatani was arrested on suspicion of forcible obstruction of a business. Kawatani has admitted to the allegations telling police “The one that released the cockroaches was me.”
Police are currently attempting to ascertain the motive behind Kawatani’s actions.
Although the incident did not result in the concert being ended early, it did cause a disturbance that some of the roughly 27,000 people in attendance tweeted about. One person who was near the scene of the crime said the following on Twitter, “The people in front of me towards the right are causing a big uproar in the middle of a song. Staff members have gathered over there and are capturing the insects.”
Police have not revealed during which song the cockroaches were released.
If you’d like to watch an amusing CG recreation of this story, check out the TomoNews Japan video below.
Source: ANN News, TBS News, The Huffington Post
