Light-fingered Japanese thieves nab 80kg gold tub

TOKYO, May 30 (Reuters) Japanese police are scratching their heads over how a gold bathtub worth 120 million yen (988,100 dollar) and weighing some 80 kg was stolen from a hotel near Tokyo.

Staff discovered early today that someone had stolen the tub from a shared bathroom for men on the 10th floor of the hotel in Kamogawa, by the Pacific Ocean.

But police said they found no signs that the heavy bathtub had been dragged out of the hotel.

''The door to the room had been locked with chains, but the chains were found cut off this morning,'' a police spokesman said.

''We really don't know how this happened at this stage. But what we can assume now is that more than one person was involved in this incident.'' A similar bathtub in the hotel's shared bathroom for women is still in place, he said.

REUTERS SKB PM1202