The next time Japanese children turn up at their local park to find that their slide has disappeared overnight, they could try blaming the rise in world metal prices.
Stainless steel slides are among a growing list of metal objects to have vanished in Japan in a spate of thefts police are blaming on the insatiable appetite for scrap metal in booming China.
Last year 5,700 similar robberies were reported in locations as far apart as Shizuoka, Hiroshima and Okinawa, the national police agency said.
Thieves have made off with a bizarre array of items, including incense holders from graveyards, hundreds of metres of copper wire and the roof of a public toilet. Police estimate the damage is worth 2bn yen (£9m), according to the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun.
Industry insiders have been quick to point the finger at China, where the stolen metal is allegedly sold as scrap to feed a construction boom ahead of next summer's Olympics. "Growing demand in China has created a lucrative market over there," one told Yomiuri Shimbun. "They don't care what kind of metal it is or where it comes from. As long as it's not too obvious that it's stolen, they'll buy it."
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