Why the heck would one steal a toilet seat ?

toilet seat company?

@blackbird57 same reason people steal anything. In Central Asia, manhole covers get stolen to be sold as scrap metal. In the UK, people steal lead off church roofs and cause power cuts stealing copper out of electrical cables (often making themselves Darwin Award candidates when they get electrocuted). In West Africa, I've had tins of food pinched from my shopping bags when I've left them unattended. Worldwide, people steal hubcaps from parked cars. Stealing toilet seats (to sell or to use) seems no weirder than any of these.

@user568458 all the examples you gave were recycling uses, what use is a toilet seat ?

@blackbird57 Not the hubcaps or tinned food. Those would have been used or (more likely) sold. It's amazing what random things you can buy from street sellers in poor parts of town - not all of it is stolen, but some is. If you can't understand it, try living in a community where $6 a day is not a bad wage, and you have no job, but you know someone in the backstreet market will pay $8 for a replacement toilet seat since they cost $15 new in the imported-goods shops. Car accessories, there's another common worldwide one - and more people need toilet seats than USB car chargers.

@blackbird57 Obviously, you'll wash the stolen toilet seat thoroughly before you sell it, because you care about good customer service :-) And obviously, you'll only steal ones in good condition - you're a stolen toilet seat trader with standards, dammit, and your customers expect the best

I agree, someone once stole all my pants from my house but little else.

It has often confused me as to why people think the toilet seat is any cleaner than the top of the toilet without a seat, surely they are equally disgusting - the issue is much more one of physical dimensions than one of hygiene, I suspect.

@LessPop_MoreFizz Yeah I asked my wife at lunch and she said this as well, I never knew. Now I do. Falling down it right?

RE: cleanliness of bowl vs seat-not to get too graphic, but there's more likely to be small amounts of urine on the top of the bowl than the seat (assuming certain users lift the seat). Urine's not too unhygienic, but I'd rather not sit in it.

Come on, it's not such a great deal to go to the toilet without seating. It's not the best scenario, but I think it's much better that using option #3.

@mgarciaisaia you do realize the whole answer and comments are a little tongue-in-cheek, right?

Is a global issue, even people earning close to $1.5 million per year cannot help 'nicking toilet seats.. theguardian.com/football/2007/jan/19/newsstory.sport3

None of your references mention anything about theft of toilet seats, only about there being no toilet seats. The fact that a toilet does not have a seat does not mean it was stolen, rather it is simply a cultural difference.

@blackbird57: The minimum wage is as low as P210 (US$4.39) in the Philippines. That's not an hourly minimum wage but a DAILY minimum wage. So if I can sell a toilet seat + cover for even as little as US$5, I've already done more than a day's work!

@Tom: Right. So my question hasn't been satisfactorily answered - why are the toilet seats missing? Is it because of theft or just because Filipinos don't care much about toilet seats? Or something else?

@KennyLJ - As I alluded to in my answer, it is a cultural difference. Toilet seats are not considered a mandatory part of a toilet, they are an extra expense. While we in the west are accustomed to sitting on a seat, if you grow up sitting on the rim or squatting it makes no difference to you if there is a seat or not. And since most of us spend but a few moments actually sitting on the toilet it is an un-necessary luxury anyway ;-)

@Tom: I'd like to see evidence for your claim. I grew up in Singapore and growing up, squat toilets were common. Then there was a gradual transition to Western-style seated toilets and there were always seats. Similarly in many other Asian countries I've been to - it's either squat toilets and/or Western-style seated toilets that rarely have their seats missing. The Philippines was thus a bit of a surprise for me. Also, I spend a very long time sitting on the toilet - so this is quite important for me =P

@KennyLJ - Singapore is not a good example of what the rest of SE Asia does, it has become quite western oriented and modern. Here in Thailand toilets without seats are common in households in the countryside (as are they in Vietnam, Philippines and Laos that I have seen). And if you walk through builder supply stores you will see quite a few seatless toilets offered.

@KennyLJ in the usa bulk commercial toilets are sold without seats as well

@blackbird: Even backpackers steal the toilet paper in cheap/poor countries when they could easily buy their own. It's basically the exact same thing at a different scale.