DENDERMONDE, Belgium (AFP) – Police in Belgium admit they are clueless as they hunt thieves targeting prized Japanese koi – ornamental fish that sell for thousands of euros yet are practically uninsurable.
Champion Flemish growers with long and painful experience as victims fear ever-more costly security to protect these creatures that, left in peace, can live to 60 and eat their way to the size of a small pig.
‘It’s the financial crisis,’ Ms Veerle Jakobs of Nippon Koi Garden, a Japanese-themed estate near Antwerp holding up to 6,000 fish in high season, told AFP from her site near one of Europe’s biggest ports.
Traders have reported a sudden series of koi robberies in Flanders in recent weeks, and two separate police districts are collaborating on live investigations.
Article source: http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Lifestyle/Story/STIStory_710695.html