Man charged with stealing smelly shoe to sniff in Taiwan

Apr 8, 2011, 3:16 GMT

Taipei - A man who allegedly stole a smelly shoe not to wear but to sniff has been charged with robbery in Taiwan, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Chien Chi-shih, 22, was charged by the Panchiao Prosecutor's Office on Thursday for attacking an elderly man on February 9 and making off with one of the victim's shoes, the Liberty Times said.

Chien reportedly followed the elderly man into an alley in Yonghe, a satellite city of Taipei, pushed him to the ground, yanked off his right shoe and fled with it.

The man reported the incident to the police. With the help of surveillance cameras, officers tracked down Chien, who confessed that he seized the shoe to sniff

After having smelled it, he dropped the shoe in another lane, the paper said.

Police found the shoe and learned from Chien's family that he has a shoe fetish and has been in trouble many times for smelling shoes.

Chien was once reportedly caught removing children's shoes from a kindergarten and sniffing them one by one. The kindergarten decided not to press charges after Chien's parents apologized for his odd behaviour, police said.

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