A Japanese department store discovered on Thursday the theft of a gold tea cup. Made from 24-karat gold, the teacup was one of a series of items shown for sale at an event at a Tokyo store of the Takashimaya chain.
Security camera footage showed a man putting the cup in his bag and then running away, local media reported. This is a new incident for the chain after a fiasco in December concerning Christmas cakes, which excited social networks. More than 800 of around 2,900 frozen strawberry cakes sold online and delivered around Christmas appeared sagging once taken out of the packaging. The exhibition will continue but TakashIMaya will strengthen security around it, the spokesperson assured. The stolen cup was among the most expensive pieces of the thousand objects, mainly teaware and tableware, thus presented, a Takashinaya spokesperson explained to AFP. It was kept in an unlocked transparent box at that time so that it could easily be taken out and closely examined by customers.