In an incident reminiscent of a mystery movie script about reclusive men who turn out to be potential serial killers, a former postman in Japan has come under scrutiny after police discovered over 24,000 undelivered items including thousands of letters, stashed in his apartment in Kanagawa.
The 61-year-old man, upon being asked why he had stowed away so many items for so long, said he couldn't be "bothered" enough to deliver the items.
According to a report in Japan's Kyodo News, the postman who worked as head of delivery for a post office branch in Yokohama, felt that delivering so many items was too much bother. However, he did not want to appear slower or less efficient than his younger contemporaries. So instead, he hid the items at his home. And he has allegedly been hoarding theses undelivered items from as far back as 2003.
The man was fired from his job last year after authorities at the post office grew suspicious of a lapse during and internal audit. The man confessed to not having delivered all the times.
However, it did not end there. The man's employers approached the police in 2017 after discovering that over a thousand items had gone missing between February 2017 and November 2018.
If convicted, the man could end up paying a hefty fine of over Rs 3 lakh and also face three years in prison.
