While it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get the polis to set foot inside a UK convenience store these days – unless they’re after a box of Tunnock’s Tea Cakes or something – this is not the case in other countries.
Under The Counter was suitably impressed with law enforcement’s response to an incident in a Lawson convenience store located in the Japanese city of Fukuoka recently. You can stop sniggering; it’s pronounced ‘Foo-koo-oh-kah’.
Regular readers will be familiar with Lawson; one of its stores featured in the June 2024 edition when tourists ran amok – some going as far as to step off the pavement – trying to get an Insta-worthy snap of Mount Fuji seemingly perched on its roof.
Anyway, it all kicked off when a 40-year-old female customer had the temerity to allegedly squeeze a packet of four black sesame and cream cheese buns. The woman claimed she was only checking the bun’s firmness by “pressing lightly” with her hand. And let’s face it, who doesn’t like squeezing firm buns?
It turns out the store owner didn’t like getting his buns felt though. Especially since one of the aforementioned bakery items was dented in the process, causing the owner to restrain the woman after she refused to cough up the equivalent of 95p to buy the pack. He then called the cops, who swiftly lifted the alleged bun basher for criminal damage.
If you find this response a tad draconian, UTC advises you to replace ‘sesame and cream cheese bun’ with ‘Tunnock’s Tea Cake’. Then picture yourself unwrapping one of mankind’s greatest achievements to discover someone had poked a hole in that wee chocolate-coated dome of perfection.
Bring back hanging, or what?
