TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail for snatching mannequins used by a cake shop chain to tout its wares.
"Peko-chan," a round-eyed doll around the size of a six-year-old, has been used by Fujiya Co. Ltd. to sell sweets for five decades and her grinning countenance is a familiar sight in front of shops around Japan.
Recently, however, she has become a favorite of collectors, leading to a rash of "Peko-chan" snatchings.
Takeishi Shibuya, 31, was convicted of stealing 15 of the large dolls, valued at about 1.1 million yen ($10,170), a court official in Yamagata prefecture, northern Japan, said on Monday.
In several cases, Shibuya used pepper spray and spray paint to fend off store employees, leading prosecutors to demand a sentence of nine years in prison.
"But he has reflected on his crimes and feels bad about what he did, so the sentence was lighter as a result," the official said.
After a wave of "Peko-chan" disappearances last year, the company suggested chaining the dolls down, but customers complained that this would be cruel.
here's what pekochan looks like
http://images.google.com/images?q=pekochan&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=wi
