A 29-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of shoplifting four pairs of women's shorts from a Hyogo Prefecture supermarket by wearing them under his trousers, police said.
Office worker Katsutoshi Nishigaki was allegedly caught red-handed while attempting to leave the store in Asago, Hyogo Prefecture, at 4 p.m. Monday.
The shorts he is accused of stealing are worth a total of ¥5,670.
Nishigaki allegedly took the shorts with him into a fitting room to layer them under his trousers so no one would notice the theft, according to the police.
But his escapade was seen by a female plainclothes security guard who took notice of him when he entered the women's underwear section, the police said.
Meanwhile, a desire to hold a "family feast" prompted a woman who teaches at a junior high to steal 76 items from a supermarket in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, according to Osaka police.
Kazumi Yanagawa, 46, was arrested in the supermarket parking lot at around 3:40 p.m. Sunday after leaving the store with unpaid items worth ¥23,000, the police said.
"I wanted to serve the food for a family feast," the teacher reportedly told police.
In Akita, a municipal employee was fired Monday for stealing five food items at a supermarket last month by allegedly concealing them under her clothes.
The woman, who worked in the section in charge of improving quality of life, has already been sent to prosectors, the police said.
"Stress from work and family life came to a point where I couldn't tell right from wrong," she was quoted as telling investigators.