Police on Tuesday arrested a woman for allegedly dumping trash off the balcony of her 31st-floor condo in Kobe on a number of occasions.
Miho Shimomura, a 43-year-old unemployed woman, is believed to have twice in December tossed garbage, including a glass bottle, from the balcony of her condo where she lives alone, investigators said. Shimomura has denied the allegations.
Police were notified by the building's caretaker and they put Shimomura under arrest after reviewing security camera footage and looking at the scattered contents of the rubbish bags, the investigators said.
As there have been no reports of anyone having suffered an injury, Shimomura was only arrested on suspicion of violating the waste disposal law.
Residents had complained to the caretaker of hearing a loud noise at around 5 a.m. on a number of occasions, and then finding trash scattered in an area of the building's grounds.
Shimomura is suspected of launching a 3-kilogram bag containing plastic bottles and food waste off her balcony at around 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 4, with the trash landing on the first-floor roof of the condo entrance.
She is additionally suspected of hurling a glass bottle off the balcony at around 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 14. The bottle hit a passageway on the ground floor.
Garbage was also found strewn around the grounds at least once each in October and November, and the police are investigating whether Shimomura was involved.
The suspect, whose apartment is about 90 meters from the ground, denied dumping the garbage, investigators said.
