Tokyo thief caught with 450 pairs of high heels

Japanese police display a total of 450 pairs of high-heeled shoes at a police office in Tokyo on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014. A man arrested for stealing high-heel shoes from a Tokyo hostess club was found to have a total of 450 purloined pairs when his room was searched, Japanese police said. AFP

TOKYO—A man arrested for stealing high-heel shoes from a Tokyo hostess club was found to have a total of 450 stolen pairs when his room was searched, Japanese police said Wednesday.

“I’ve felt pleasure in stealing high heels. I was not interested in brand-new products,” Sho Sato, 28, told investigators after he was arrested Tuesday, according to Tokyo police.

Sato, who is jobless and has no fixed residence, broke into the changing room of the hostess club in Tokyo’s glitzy Ginza district last November and stole 14 pairs of high heels and cosmetics, police said.

They later confiscated some 450 pairs of high heels from a room he rented but the owners have yet to be identified.

“The lockers at the club’s changing room were a treasure chest,” Sato was quoted as telling police.