i see ...

I used to wear glasses. And I remember how hard it was to find the right pair — you know, the ones that made just the right statement about who I was. But this is just weird.

Fetish mugger had 124 spectacles
A fetish Japanese mugger who longed for his boyhood friend's eyeglasses was arrested with 154 pairs of glasses or contact lenses he allegedly seized by force, police and reports said today.

Construction worker Toru Nagasawa, 29, was caught after he went outside a man's apartment building and asked for directions. Nagasawa then punched the victim in the face, saying he did not answer politely enough, police said. Nagasawa then allegedly followed the victim into his apartment and forced him to take off his contact lenses, a police spokesman said.

"Are you wearing contact lenses now? Put them in my eyes," Nagasawa told the 31-year-old victim, as quoted by the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper.

After Nagasawa's arrest yesterday in Kawasaki, just south of Tokyo, police put on display what they confiscated from his home - 124 pairs of glasses and 30 pairs of contact lenses of a wide variety.

He reportedly stocked them in plastic bags in his room.

Police did not comment on his motive but Nagasawa reportedly said: "I felt good when I wore the glasses of a friend in my junior high school days. I have ever since been searching for glasses that fit me." The Nikkan Sports tabloid said 22 similar cases have been recorded in Kawasaki city since January, all targeting men in their 30s.