but if I did and went shopping,
or visited a bank by the tills I am told I would see some of these, they are not for sale, but what are they?
the balls are called Yu Kara Bohan Boru, (anticrime colour balls), basically, they’re paint balls, plastic
spheres filled with brightly coloured liquid pigment, but unlike the
fun-and-games variety, these balls are kept on hand in case of a stickup, the
idea is to lob one after a robber and mark him to improve the chance of an
arrest, but here is the thing, do they work? “Even if the balls aren’t
actually used, that they are in the store and visible to would-be thieves helps
protect the store,” Akihiro Suwa, a public-safety officer with the Tokyo
Metropolitan Police commented, “That’s why we, and police departments around the
country, ask banks and store owners to include colour balls as part of their
crime-prevention efforts.” arrests do happen thanks to colour balls, just
last month a man held up an agricultural cooperative in Yokohama and made off
with a bag of cash, when an employee was able to mark the getaway truck with a
colour ball, the thief abandoned his vehicle and fled on foot, but the police
tracked him down through the truck’s registration and arrested him at
home,
the anticrime colour balls were developed about 20 years ago
as an eggreplacement, a what replacement? at that time, the nation’s highways had a problem with
toll evaders, and toll-booth attendants had taken to throwing raw eggs at
vehicles that charged through without paying their tolls, while the police
appreciated this effort to mark non payers, they felt it was inappropriate to
use food for the purpose, so someone came up with pigment-filled balls as an
alternative, an improvement, really, since eggs can be washed off but the paint
in colour balls leaves a permanent stain, the use of colour balls spread from
toll booths to banks and by the late ’80s, convenience stores started to
introduce them as well, most police stations and and police boxes keep them on
hand, while newer users include hotels, gas stations and even the Japanese
Marine Self-Defences Forces, if you have a moment to spare have a look at the
video to see how effective they are.
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