(Mainichi)

       GIFU -- A total of 102 steel plates covering a roadside drainage ditch have been stolen in the town of Shirakawa, Gifu Prefecture, the prefectural government announced on Sept. 11.

       The covers -- with a market value of 1,183,200 yen (about $11,000) -- had been installed on an about 1.6-kilometer section of ditch along a prefectural road. The prefectural government filed a damage report with prefectural police's Kamo Police Station on the same day.

       According to the prefecture, the covers were still in place during a check on Sept. 9. The theft surfaced when a resident reported the steel plates missing on the morning of Sept. 11. Pylons were placed along the stretch of newly exposed ditch as a safety measure.

       (Japanese original by Sawako Kumagai, Gifu Bureau)

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