crime

Police question man for not looking good in a suit; turns out he bought it with stolen money

26 Comments
By Casey Baseel, SoraNews24

People in Japan tend to put a lot of effort into their personal appearance. Men and women alike have complex grooming routines with a variety of skin and hair care products, and most make sure their clothing is clean and their outfits coordinated when leaving the house.

So perhaps it was due to the country’s high fashion standards that a police officer on patrol took notice of one young man as he was exiting a convenience store in the town of Minanomachi, Saitama Prefecture, on May 16. The man was wearing a suit, but according to the police officer he “didn’t look quite right in it,” and while the officer hasn’t specified what exactly the fashion faux pas was, it was enough to make him stop the 20-year-old man and ask him who he was and what he’d been doing in the convenience store.

That might seem like pretty thin justification, but such stops aren’t so incredibly rare in Japan, and the officer’s intuition turned out to be amazingly accurate, as the man in the suit had just used a credit card he’d stolen from an elderly woman one hour earlier to withdraw 500,000 yen from an ATM inside the convenience store.

Earlier in the day, an 87-year-old woman living in Minanomachi had received multiple phone calls from men claiming to be local government and banking officials. They’d told her that because her ATM card was too old, her pension payments couldn’t be completed, and that they’d be sending someone to collect her card so that they could process it and issue her a new one at a later date. The part about her ATM card being too old was a lie, but the woman fell for it, and the man who came to collect her card was the same didn’t-look-good-in-a-suit guy that the police officer later picked up with a thick stack of the woman’s money.

At first the whole thing sounds like an amazing stroke of luck, but there could actually be a bit of practical logic behind it. Scam artistry isn’t a job that requires you to wear a suit most of the time, and wearing clothing you’re not used to tends to affect your body language and make you stand out in a crowd, which in this case ended up being the first step in the officer realizing the man had been pretending to be someone he really wasn’t.

The man has been placed under arrest and admitted to the charges, though at least one other man was involved in the scam and remains at large. Hopefully, the incident will serve as a reminder to people that when there’s a problem with your ATM card, the bank will have you come to one of its branches to rectify it. They won’t send someone to your house to pick it up.

Source: Saitama Shimbun via Jin

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- Four foreign men arrested near Tokyo under charges of “international romance fraud”

-- Is it a crime to ditch a bad date and leave them with the bill? Japanese man finds out

-- “Annoying to put on clothes,” Kochi City official arrested for taking out garbage naked

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

26 Comments
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Millions of people stopped so one bust is made-that’s what policing is all about!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

 Acting on hunches is effective even if it cannot always be articulated. It is a combination of many years experience acting on a subconscious level.

Do you mean stopping foreigners too, yeah that needs years experience.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Depends on your bank and the settings you have on your account/card (account limits). With Shinsei atm card, and maxed out withdraw limits, I was able to go to local 7 Eleven atm and withdraw 500,000yen per transaction, 5x one right after the next. Later in the day deposit the cash in 5 deposits, one after the next. And a few hours later, withdraw the same amount.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The maximum transaction from ATMs is 400,000Y.

Any more, and you need to go to the bank with ID.

The article says otherwise.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The maximum transaction from ATMs is 400,000Y.

Any more, and you need to go to the bank with ID.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Can you actually take that much yen from one transaction?? That's around 4,500USD. Here in the states you can only take a couple hundred dollars with one transaction per day.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Exactly, of course after many stops they will find someone who involve in sort of crime. 

Probably far fewer than you'd think. Acting on hunches is effective even if it cannot always be articulated. It is a combination of many years experience acting on a subconscious level.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Complain about it if it's expressly written into law that these practices are illegal. But I find it fascinating at how many people visit or move to a foreign country and immediately think their home country's laws apply in the new nation.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

I wonder how many failed 'hunches' and stops it took to get this one that he could send to the media...

Exactly, of course after many stops they will find someone who involve in sort of crime. Once they find that person they need to come up with an explanation why that person is being stopped, they just don't have any, so they made it up something. So far they never reveal how many stops they've done before catching that person.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It's called found money.

Step up yo game if you gonna rip people off and try to floss. Learn how to be cultured if want the finer things in life. If not, you're gonna end up exactly where you belong, behind bars.

Hopefully someone in the joint teaches this fool how to dress appropriately.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I wonder if when someone withdraws 500,000 Yen from a conbini ATM, an alert is sent to the police? If ever I had to withdraw such a large amount, not sure I would be doing it from the convenience store. Just sayin.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I wonder how many failed 'hunches' and stops it took to get this one that he could send to the media...

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Good job, but I hope the police won't start stopping and questioning all people with suits who "don't look quite right in it".

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Japanese men rarely have any individual style of their own when it comes to clothes. I peeked inside a fashion mag once that had paparazzi pics of Western actors, athletes, etc... Every sartorial Japanese guy I saw on the streets of Tokyo had ripped off the fashions in that one particular mag - down to every detail, top to bottom, with no "variation on a theme" at all -- zero creativity, imagination put in their outfit. The more I looked through fashion mags and browsed fashion websites I realized.. The Japanese are REALLY good at ripping off ideas.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Inevitably, the people who criticize Japanese fashion tend to wear cargo pants and t-shirts. Anybody in fashion knows Japan is very fashionable. It's weird that anyone would debate that.

Bingo. I see fellow Americans coming over on vacation and they all dress like slobs.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Didn't the exact same thing happen last year too?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

NICE JOB on the police officers part. He saved this elderly women a heartache.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

There are many smart, well dressed people in Japan. Some slobs too but that’s the same everywhere.

Back on to the story, the guy should have told the police officer to do one. He’s not legally allowed to search his wallet without a search warrant, isn’t he?

1 ( +3 / -2 )

High fashion standards in Japan?? This is the most ridiculous statement this year. :)))

Exactly! Have you seen those on TV here? Hardly what I call fashionable; especially on the variety shows.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Inevitably, the people who criticize Japanese fashion tend to wear cargo pants and t-shirts. Anybody in fashion knows Japan is very fashionable. It's weird that anyone would debate that.

0 ( +9 / -9 )

"So perhaps it was due to the country’s high fashion standards

"High fashion standards in Japan?? This is the most ridiculous statement this year. :)))"

Lol. You mean potato sacks, shoes that don't fit, clothes that are too big and lace whatever are not high fashion?

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Although the premise of field interrogating because of ill-fitting clothes seems ridiculous, it’s a page right out out of the manual.

Awkwardly fitting or unseasonal clothing are one of the first things patrol officers look for. (baggy jeans, trench coats in the summer, unofficial work uniforms, military style clothing, bulky backpacks, exotic or “eccentric” fashion, etc)

1 ( +1 / -0 )

So perhaps it was due to the country’s high fashion standards

Oh, I see. Are you referring to the gray track suit and orange hair fashion? Or, how about the millions of black suits and bad hair cuts cramming into trains every morning? Or, how about the selfie taken by Abe with Trump on the golf course? That showed some real high fashion. High fashion standards? Give me a break!

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Well those officer like to check people not who only just out from convenience store also people who just hangout around of convenience store. Yet not to mention them checking foreign look people. From those countless check it's obvious they will find people who just committing a crime. After that they need justify why that person is being check in the first place, simple answer is they check people on regular basis around convenience store but of course they won't say that, so they come up with another reason, something wrong with his fashion.

“the officer hasn’t specified what exactly the fashion faux pas was, it was enough to make him stop the 20-year-old man and ask him who he was and what he’d been doing in the convenience store.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

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