Washing Machine Mystery
At the end of July, my washing machine was stolen. It sounds just plain weird for someone to say their washing machine was stolen period, but even more so if you don’t know that their washing machine sits outside on their front balcony. :-) Yep, so someone, in broad daylight, decided to help me celebrate my 1-year anniversary in Japan by stealing my washing machine, which also happens to be one of those half-sized things so conveniently for the thief, not as difficult to carry. It was there in the morning when I left my apartment, I’m fairly certain, but much to the chagrin of the police later on that day, it just happens to be one of those things I don’t consciously verify on a daily basis when I leave my apartment. Door locked? Check. Washing machine still there? Check.
I just happened to come home in the afternoon at the same time as my neighbors. As I was walking toward my apartment building, I saw my upstairs neighbor making very prolonged observations from his apartment doorway towards the general direction of my washing machine (the space for which I couldn’t see from my standpoint at street level), which I thought was royally odd, but whatever. As I started up the stairs to my apartment, my downstairs, kitty-corner neighbor emerged from her apartment and the upstairs neighbor started descending the stairs so I returned to street level to chat away with them for a bit, completely obliviously that I was about to have my first experience with theft (anything more than food from a shared refrigerator, that is :-) ). Now, my upstairs neighbor is a bit on the quiet side anyway, and very polite, so he wasn’t about to interrupt the conversation, even with something as important as the theft of a major household appliance, but when an appropriate break came, he very nicely said, “Mandy, do you know your washing machine is missing?” Well, I’ll be darned. So it was!
My neighbors were heading over to Town Hall anyway, so they offered to stop into the Board of Education Office to ask if the office had for some reason taken my machine for servicing purposes, which was very kind of them to do, because washing machine theft is not a conversation topic I’ve mastered yet in Japanese. I believe about 10 minutes later my supervisor appeared at my door to confirm that my washing machine had indeed disappeared. He went back to his office to call the police. :-) I knew that was coming. I think I did the fastest, most thorough apartment clean ever recorded in the history of man the second my supervisor drove away and it’s a good thing I did, because when the police officer arrived, he was followed by one of my Junior High School English teachers, one of the Junior High School Principals, my supervisor, and 10 minutes later, 2 more police officers. I was seriously trying not to laugh the entire time we were filling out the police report. The parking lot in front of my apartment building was full of cars parked at random, and I can only imagine what the neighbors thought about the scenario!
It was also funny because when my supervisor left, one of my first thoughts was about how quiet I would be able to keep the situation. Initially I thought, well, if it’s just the police and my supervisor, maybe no one at my schools will know. Yeah right. People I have random connections with at the Town Hall are STILL asking me about my washing machine situation and I don’t even bat an eye when they bring it up. My inside joke with myself was that the story would probably be run in the next town newsletter. Of course it wasn’t, but you never know….. So anyway, of course they never found my washing machine, although I’m sure the police did an extremely thorough search of the area within a 50-kilometer radius (ha ha). The junior high school across the street from my house (whose principal came over with the police on the day in question) lent me an extra washing machine they happened to have on hand, so I was only without a washing machine for 2 days. All in all, it ended up being more of a funny, memorable experience for me than anything, for which I am indeed grateful!
I just happened to come home in the afternoon at the same time as my neighbors. As I was walking toward my apartment building, I saw my upstairs neighbor making very prolonged observations from his apartment doorway towards the general direction of my washing machine (the space for which I couldn’t see from my standpoint at street level), which I thought was royally odd, but whatever. As I started up the stairs to my apartment, my downstairs, kitty-corner neighbor emerged from her apartment and the upstairs neighbor started descending the stairs so I returned to street level to chat away with them for a bit, completely obliviously that I was about to have my first experience with theft (anything more than food from a shared refrigerator, that is :-) ). Now, my upstairs neighbor is a bit on the quiet side anyway, and very polite, so he wasn’t about to interrupt the conversation, even with something as important as the theft of a major household appliance, but when an appropriate break came, he very nicely said, “Mandy, do you know your washing machine is missing?” Well, I’ll be darned. So it was!
My neighbors were heading over to Town Hall anyway, so they offered to stop into the Board of Education Office to ask if the office had for some reason taken my machine for servicing purposes, which was very kind of them to do, because washing machine theft is not a conversation topic I’ve mastered yet in Japanese. I believe about 10 minutes later my supervisor appeared at my door to confirm that my washing machine had indeed disappeared. He went back to his office to call the police. :-) I knew that was coming. I think I did the fastest, most thorough apartment clean ever recorded in the history of man the second my supervisor drove away and it’s a good thing I did, because when the police officer arrived, he was followed by one of my Junior High School English teachers, one of the Junior High School Principals, my supervisor, and 10 minutes later, 2 more police officers. I was seriously trying not to laugh the entire time we were filling out the police report. The parking lot in front of my apartment building was full of cars parked at random, and I can only imagine what the neighbors thought about the scenario!
It was also funny because when my supervisor left, one of my first thoughts was about how quiet I would be able to keep the situation. Initially I thought, well, if it’s just the police and my supervisor, maybe no one at my schools will know. Yeah right. People I have random connections with at the Town Hall are STILL asking me about my washing machine situation and I don’t even bat an eye when they bring it up. My inside joke with myself was that the story would probably be run in the next town newsletter. Of course it wasn’t, but you never know….. So anyway, of course they never found my washing machine, although I’m sure the police did an extremely thorough search of the area within a 50-kilometer radius (ha ha). The junior high school across the street from my house (whose principal came over with the police on the day in question) lent me an extra washing machine they happened to have on hand, so I was only without a washing machine for 2 days. All in all, it ended up being more of a funny, memorable experience for me than anything, for which I am indeed grateful!
posted by Mandy | 9:14 PM
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