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A 23-year-old police officer in Komono, Mie Prefecture, has been arrested on suspicion of breaking into a house and stealing luxury watches valued at 10 million yen.
According to Mie prefectural police, Takuma Iwanaga, broke into the home of a male company executive between 9:20 and 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Fuji TV reported. He is accused of stealing high-end watches and other items.
Police said Iwanaga previously visited the victim’s house two years ago as part of an investigation into another crime.
He was off duty at the time of the theft on Tuesday. However, a man doing housing construction work at the house noticed a suspicious person roaming around and contacted the home owner's family.
Police said Iwanaga, who was identified through street surveillance camera footage, has admitted to the charge and quoted him as saying he was trying to pay off his debt and hinted that he may have burgled other homes.
© Japan Today
16 Comments
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Peter Neil
"Stop, or I'll call the police!"
"I am the police..."
Gaijinjland
At least wait until after dark. Moron.
snowymountainhell
Does anyone else agree this was “good work!” by the witness and a police or community commendation along with a family cash reward may be due to him? Japan really needs to appreciate such hard-working and community-conscious people, less we continue to see only the cynical and depressing news.
snowymountainhell
Doesn’t say if he was arrested at the scene.
If there had never been camera footage, it’s possible “tables could have been turned”, implicating the ‘witness’, at least for some time in interrogation, rather than ‘one of their own’.
jiji Xx
semi-off topic but..... I'm interested to know, in general, the process police use to go from a person/face on a surveillance camera record, to finding him or her IRL. presumably if the person's face isn't in some databank, no trace? or what? probably someone here knows how it works.... I ask because "nabbed due to surveillance camera 'footage'" comes up so often in stories here.
Goodlucktoyou
What is it about luxury watches? All you need is the time, waterproof to 100m, altitude, barometer, and temperature.
ive seen these luxurious watches. Never want one.
sir_bentley28
When police becomes the burgulars who break into people's homes to pay off thier debts, that's when you know its bad!
hmmm1
That is his career gone. All that study and training wasted.
shogun36
Hmmm, sounds like a tight ship they are running in Mie.
Where do they find officers like this? Kicking it at the Lawson's on a Tuesday afternoon with his boys?
The recruiter:
"Hey fellas, you guys wanna be cops? All you have to do is wear a uniform, sleep in the koban or play with your phones, and that's it. On your days off, we don't care what you do. "
Takuma Iwanaga:
"OK."
Concerned Citizen
@shogun36
Ha ha ha! Good one shogun36!
virusrex
The full weight of the law should be put on top of this criminal, he was trusted with authority over regular people on the understanding that he would act with responsibility to protect them, instead he used it to choose easy targets.
Mickelicious
Mitigation? But your honour, I was off duty...
AMS
I cannot understand how a policeman can have such behavior! After all, they are human being!
Mark
Not only he wont be able to pay his debts, but he wont even have an income anymore.
konjo4u
23 years old. That is so young to throw away a career in law enforcement. Good luck finding anything else.