With the price of gold more than doubling in the past five years, Japan has witnessed a string of increasingly daring gold heists. In the wee hours of a recent June morning, bandits skulked off with a solid gold bath tub belonging to a resort hotel just outside of Tokyo.

The "golden tub" tipped the scales at 176 lbs and is reported to be worth around $971,000. Guests of the Kominato Hotel Mikazuki had been taking dips in the tub in hopes that it would bring them good fortune.

The price for gold has surged from a low of $277/oz in December 2001 to a high of $725 in May of last year. It has slipped since then but still was trading at an average $659 in June. An official with a commodities futures trading house in Tokyo said that there has been a rash of precious metals thefts this year, but usually only smaller items like hanging golden bells at temples had been snatched.

However, in March four men made off with a 220,000 lbs block of gold valued at $106 million that was on display at a museum in Gifu Prefecture, central Japan.


Gold is reaching price levels lately 
the metal hasn’t seen in 27 years.