Kyoto cops recall special shoes used for pervy pics

KYOTO (TR) – Following the bust of a shopping site selling shoes containing a miniature camera used to take illicit photographs, Kyoto Prefectural Police are now seeking the return of the merchandise from customers, it was revealed on Tuesday, reports the Mainichi Shimbun (Sept. 17).

On July 1, officers charged the manager of the site Camouflage Camera, 25-year-old Takahiko Naito, and employee Atsuko Sonoda, 24, with selling athletic shoes that include cameras to customers knowing that the merchandise would be used to facilitate the taking of photographs of the underwear of women. Naito was subsequently fined 500,000 yen.

Using a list of 1,000 customers obtained at the time of bust, officers are now going door to door and asking that the purchasers voluntarily relinquish the shoes, the possession of which is not illegal.

Three weeks after the bust of Camouflage Camera, Osaka Prefectural Police arrested a man from Okayama Prefecture for taking illicit photos up a school girl’s skirt at an aquarium in Minato Ward with shoes purchased on the site.

“To inhibit the continued increase in perverted photos, there is no choice but to cut off the practice at its source,” an upper-lever representative of the police said.

The specialty shoe, whose shutter is triggered with a remote control, sells for approximately 30,000 yen. Since 2012, the site sold approximately 2,500 pairs, with revenue from the sales totaling around 60 million yen.

Kyoto police began the process in the middle of August by visiting approximately 40 customers in the prefecture who purchased the shoes.