A 30-year-old man was arrested for theft on Thursday morning, accused of stealing a police car while the officers were conducting random alcohol breath tests.
Yasuki Mori, an unemployed resident of Sapporo, is accused of getting in the police wagon and driving off just after 4.30 a.m. The vehicle was unlocked and the engine left running to power the electric sign and other lighting set up to caution drivers to slow down for a possible breath test.
Officers in another car caught up Mori with about five minutes later, one kilometer away from the scene. He was arrested for theft and police are pursuing a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol.
Mori told police he had been drinking at a bar and that he didn’t want to walk all the way home, about 7 kilometers away.
© Japan Today
29 Comments
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GG2141
Probably made perfect sense at the time.
TheguyNextdoor
Sounds like something straight out of HANGOVER, they should let him go for even letting it happen. I know when I see them setting up shop for breath test, there are plenty of cops around, hard to believe he just got in and drove off. FUNNY AS HELL!!
seesaw
LOL
FryingMonkey
Tell me ol' boy had a tiger in the back seat. Takes a sack to nick a patrol car!
TheguyNextdoor
LOL Monkeyfry
SebastianFlyte
This guy deserves an Oscar!
BritAsianinJap
Only in Japan....;)
Bogi
Love stories like this.
aintgottimetobl
if he had damaged it,could they have gotten insurance ??
tamesu
Another koseki tohon bites the dust.......
timorborder
Only in Japan....;)
Not exactly, a friend of mine (who is now a senior crown prosecutor) stole a police car as part of a university scavenger hunt years ago. He (and his friends) were arrested, but the no conviction was recorded because they were all legal eagles in training. These days, however, a similar stunt would have had quite different outcomes.
Anyway, the fact that the stolen police van in this story was part of an RBT unit makes things even funnier.
nutsagain
Same thing, as a part of our university scavenger hunt many years ago, stealing a police car was 100 points plus. Nobody actually had the courage to do it but two friends, dressed in grey dust-coats pretending to be service personell and carrying a ladder, quietly walked into a magistrates court in session and removed a clock from the wall. Two very big men on campus for the next 4 years and have since gone into university folklore.
NuckinFutz
And where were the cops? This is friggin priceless! Only in Japan could something this stupid happen!
enragedbees
This sounds like a Benny Hill clip.
MeanRingo
I wonder if the cops chocked this one up as a job well done. The DID catch a drunk driver... even if he was in one of their own cars.
smithinjapan
Classic! The guy didn't want to walk home!
IfeelImust
A life long fantacy to steal a police car, wah hoo, wah hoo! Need to get very pissed first though. ONE DAY!
bcbrownboy
Thanks for making my day a little brighter. Next time maybe the j-cops will be a little brighter.
Jbizzle
Meanringo...good point! Technically they collared a DUI! LOL good for them!
intomioka
I would be bragging about that for the rest of my life.
benhur
hahha... thanks for the idea! ;-)
jonobugs
It would be interesting to know if someone would get more punishment or less if they used the same excuse but weren't under the influence.
bcbrownboy
This should really be in the entertainment section.
MeanRingo
Like the Breus Blothels!
electric2004
If the police had just stopped the engine and taken out the key, nothing could have happened. Also this is better for the environment (idling stop campaign). However, if the car battery is too weak (unlike Prius), after some time, one has to be careful that there is still enough charge to restart the engine.
BurakuminDes
What a champion! This man has guaranteed free drinks in his local bars for the rest of his life...LEGEND!
mnemosyne23
...
The mind boggles.
Okay... I get that they were using the car to power the sign and lights. I'm going to go on the record right here as saying, isn't that a fairly silly way to generate power? Could't they bring a generator, or use something else to create the light? Isn't that unnecessary wear on the car's engine, not to mention a waste of gas and unwarranted contribution to greenhouse emissions?
A clear indicator of a drunk's persepective: rather than asking the police to help him home by calling a taxi, he STEALS A POLICE CAR. Presumably he would have had to unhook some cables or other power cords to do it, too, which just speaks to how distracted the police must have been. Wow. Just WOW.
Sarge
I'll bet Mori doesn't have a gold driver's license.
Nwabiafra1
As funny as it get, lets see whats the J-Police is going to do with this HOME-BOY.