Fake Sewage Workers Go Door-to-Door

image Here's an odd story reported in the Mainichi Daily News:
A tablet given to a local woman by a group of men posing as sewage workers who told her to swallow it if her tap water became dirty, has proven to be an chemical pipe cleaning agent, investigators said....
Several men visited the home of the victim in the Nagata Sannodai district of Minami-ku, Yokohama on Thursday morning, and handed a blue and white tablet to the resident, bureau officials said. "We're carrying out sewage works in the neighborhood. Please put this tablet into the drainage pipe if the tap water becomes turbid or gives off a foul smell," one of the men was quoted as telling the resident. The men later visited the home again and asked the resident if they used the tablet. No sewage work was underway at the time. A 70-year-old woman living in Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, was told to swallow the tablet they gave her. They subsequently visited her home and asked her if she took it. When she answered she did not swallow it, the men asked her why she failed to take it.

So let me get this straight. Some guys are going around, posing as sewage workers, and giving people free drain-clearing chemicals. And sometimes they're trying to get people to swallow these chemicals. These sound like very disturbed individuals, but I'm also getting the sense that there's more to this story than is being reported here.

Identity/Imposters Law/Police/Crime

Posted on Sun Apr 15, 2007



Comments

That's just odd...
Posted by Nettie  on  Sun Apr 15, 2007  at  01:42 AM
Maybe just a scam to scout for burglary opportunities.
Posted by LaMa  on  Sun Apr 15, 2007  at  06:15 AM
Many years ago I read about a Japanese man who carried around a stick of dynamite just to be different, rebelling against the regimented lifestyle in Japan. Maybe these guys just went bonkers and are out to cause panic and or kill someone. Then again, maybe the story itseld is a hoax. I mean, after all, we all know that people do not do crazy things.
Posted by Christopher Cole  on  Sun Apr 15, 2007  at  02:20 PM
Maybe it's getting lost in translation...if the second woman is that old...maybe she wasn't re-telling the story right. Japanese people get demented with age just like the rest of the world.
Posted by Maegan  on  Sun Apr 15, 2007  at  09:53 PM
Stranger things have happened I guess...
Posted by thunder  on  Sun Apr 15, 2007  at  10:41 PM
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