Tokyo: Three men were arrested in Japan after their rustling suitcases alerted the hotel staff to the thousands of protected hermit crabs inside, police announced on Thursday, May 8.
A hotel worker in the city of Amami, on one of the subtropical islands in the southwest of the archipelago, the alleged crime on Tuesday reported to the environmental authorities.
Customers “asked the hotel to watch their suitcases, and the suitcases made a noise of rustling,” a police official told AFP.
When two of the three guests returned to the hotel, the police asked them to reveal the contents of their luggage.
Inside the three suitcases, the police found approximately 95 kg of protected and protected hermit crabs.
These hermit crabs come from a group of species designated as “national natural monuments” because of their cultural and scientific value.
