TOKYO: Three men were arrested in Japan after their rustling suitcases alerted hotel staff to the thousands of protected hermit crabs inside, police said Thursday (May 8).
A hotel worker in Amami City, on one of the archipelago’s southwestern subtropical islands, reported the suspected crime to environmental authorities on Tuesday.
The guests “had asked the hotel to watch their suitcases, and the suitcases made a rustling noise”, a police official told AFP.
When two of the three guests returned to the hotel, police asked them to reveal the contents of their luggage.
Inside the three suitcases, police found about 95kg of spiral-shelled, protected hermit crabs.
These hermit crabs are from a group of species designated as “national natural monuments” because of their cultural and scientific value.
