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K-On Goods Stolen from Anime's Model School Recovered

The items that were stolen from the real-life model for the K-On anime's school were discovered on Friday in a ditch at a field near the former campus of Toyosato Elementary School in Shiga Prefecture. According to the authorities investigating the incident, two guitars, a bass guitar, an empty cash box, and the other stolen goods were discovered along with an iron crowbar. The field also had multiple footprints. The Chunichi Shimbun paper posted a photograph of the recovered items.

On Wednesday morning, over 20 K-ON! anime character goods and a safe with about 290,000 yen (about US$3,500) were discovered missing from the former Toyosato campus. A glass window at the north side of the school's Shūtoku Memorial Building had been broken.

Last year, Kyoto Animation modeled the K-On anime's fictional Sakuragaoka High School after the Toyosato campus, which was being repurposed since new school facilities were built. In the year between May 2009 and May 2010, about 40,000 fans visited the campus, and over 1,000 goods were put on display. The guitars and 22 figures that were stolen were all given by fans, and the cash box contained proceeds from the on-campus shop.

Source: Chunichi Shimbun