Man claims Studio Ghibli’s Totoro inspired him to shoplift umbrella

Around the middle of the day, a 30-year old man walked into convenience store with the most devious of intentions: to steal. Convenience stores are riddled with a number of items some would consider 'stealable,' there's alcohol, food, over the counter medicines and a various other items that could be deemed valuable.

This man was not after any of these things, he wanted an umbrella – except, he didn't want to pay for the umbrella. Why? Because he loves Totoro, of course!

Unfortunately for the thief, he was spotted by an alert clerk while stealing the umbrella. The clerk began to raise a commotion when the man attempted to make his escape. Recognizing that he had been seen the thief took off sprinting, but his escape was thwarted by a patrol officer.

When questioned about why the man stole an umbrella of all thing, he claimed that Hayao Miyazaki's 1988 film, My Neighbor Totoro, had inspired him to do it. It wasn't the entirety of the film that made him do it, just the scene where Totoro dances around acorn seedlings with Mei and Satsuki — all while holding an umbrella. It's unclear as to whether or not he intended to do the same dance with the umbrella.

The man believed that owning an umbrella would change his luck – regardless of the fact that the following scene in the film reveals that the dancing didn't make the acorns grow.

[RocketNews]