crime

Shoplifter drags drugstore employee 130 meters by car in Hyogo Pref

13 Comments
By SoraNews24

A simple shoplifting incident turned into a full-blown action sequence last Friday in Akashi City, Hyogo Prefecture, leaving one employee lightly injured and the would-be thief facing attempted murder charges.

At approximately 4 p.m. the suspect, 31-year-old Kazuya Oshita, was allegedly spotted exiting a drugstore with about 9,500 yen worth of items including supplements in his possession. The 29-year old employee who witnessed the theft followed Oshita out of the store.

However, the suspect quickly got into a car which was being driven by a 34-year-old man who co-manages a lounge with Oshita. The employee remained in pursuit and approached the driver’s seat shouting, “Wait!”

Just then the car started to drive off. Perhaps out of instinct, or perhaps because he was standing too close and was worried the car would drag him under, the employee clung to the window as the car took off down the road.

After dragging him for about 130 meters, the car collided with another vehicle and the chase came to an end. Both men in the car were arrested, and Oshita was charged with attempted murder and robbery while the driver is facing reckless driving charges with further charges pending.

Readers of the news were surprised to see an incident escalate so quickly.

“That guy botched every aspect of that crime.”

“That’s a tough employee.”

“The lounge business must not be going well.”

“I don’t think it was attempted murder and robbery because the attempted murder and theft didn’t occur at the same time.”

“The employee wouldn’t have been dragged so much if he had just let go. Did he think he had the power to stop the car with his bare hands?”

Likely the employee was fearing that if he let go he’d be run over, so it’s understandable that he would hang on as long as he could. Still, the attempted murder charge is surprising since they probably didn’t expect the employee to latch onto them and thus had no intent to kill.

The investigation is still ongoing, however, and there appears to be a lot more to unwrap to this story.

Sources: Sankei News West, Hachima Kiko

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- Japanese convenience store clerk stops robbery with wooden kendo sword and fighting pose

-- Foreign shop clerk and Japanese customer fail to communicate because of Japanese language quirk

-- 54-year-old Japanese woman stops armed robbery at her convenience store with her brute strength

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

13 Comments
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Love how the story sets up the defense strategy in the second to last paragraph

3 ( +3 / -0 )

NO PART TIME JOB in the world is worth risking your life like this.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

Oshita was charged with attempted murder and robbery while the driver is facing reckless driving charges with further charges pending.

Eh? Shouldn't the attempted murder charge be on the driver?

7 ( +7 / -0 )

That's what happens when the one writing the story is trying to act like a lawyer

4 ( +4 / -0 )

'Still, the attempted murder charge is surprising since they probably didn’t expect the employee to latch onto them and thus had no intent to kill.'

What an ignorant statement. If you have robbed a store and then purposely drive off at speed while a shop employee is clinging on to your car, it's no surprise that you may be charged with attempted murder.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

I have heard this type of story in other countries too. Remember the good ol days of writing down license plate numbers? Anyways kudos to him for stopping the criminals.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

I used to live in Akashi, nice to see it in the news.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I'll never understand these "have a go heroes" who risk their lives for the multi-million dollar corporation they are employed on a part-time basis for. 

It's complete folly.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

One or two people are crittersising the shop worker, hang on a minute, he/she tried to stop a thief from steeling goods (allegedly) we see this all to often here in the UK, the police won't attend to the calls from shop owners who have caught a shop lifter, so shop lifting and theft from cars, vans are on the increase dramatically all they do is give you a crime number so you can call and claim off your insurance, which is putting up premiums! so back to the shop worker, i would like to praise there actions for trying to stop this petty crimes, because if you don't it will only get worse, as crim's know that the police won't come and arrest you, and as for being charge with serious offences, good! the moral of the story is don't steel stuff!

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

It's interesting that the thief was charged with attempted murder and not the driver of the vehicle. Surely it was the driver's actions that imperilled the employee.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

You know you're dedicated to your 880-yen/hour job when you pull some James Bond diving-on-car moves because some dude lifted a bottle of vitamins...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Doraggu stoa

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Attempted murder needs intent...driver had no intention to kill because employee chose to chase them and latch on to the car....manslaughter maybe....

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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