Safes Are Being Recovered From The Disaster In Japan
Plenty of personal household safes have been appearing at Japanese police stations in the wake of that country’s current devastation.
They have not only been recovered by save workers burrowing through rubble but have also been washed up ashore, and now law enforcement is running out of room to store them.
Until now, these safes have been kept in the station parking lot, but with each station holding onto several hundred at a time, authorities have decided to try a more pro-active approach to reuniting them with their owners outside of simply waiting for those people to show up.
Japanese police now hope to open these safes themselves hoping of finding identifying information within with which to make their own inquiries.
Under Japanese law, you will find there’s little more than three weeks for lost items to be claimed by their owners.
After twenty-three days, finders can grow to be keepers – or the government takes ownership.
Police hope to reunite disaster victims with their belongings prior to the finders/keepers-law can take effect.
Normally, given the special situations involved, extensions to the usual deadline have been offered, but any haste that can be made might surely be welcome by the victims.
The matter is especially important given the Japanese practice, found especially amongst their elderly, of saving money and other valuables not in banks but at home.
Such “wardrobe savings,” as the Japanese phrase goes, is very common but has become quite the misfortune for disaster victims who have lost literally everything short of their lives and the garments on their backs.
Hence, any effort expedited on behalf of such people won’t simply be tremendously appreciated but is absolutely essential to ensure even their very continued survival.
Luckily, of course, it is due to the distinctive nature of Japan that valuables have been completed, along with the absence of looting and other rioting – a fact not lost on envious foreign observers.