crime

Man arrested after applying for driver's license renewal while drunk

65 Comments

A 45-year-old man was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol on Thursday after he went to a police station to renew his driver's license while drunk, police said Friday.

Susumu Moriya, an unemployed resident of Sagamihara City, went into Sagamihara Kita police station just before 9.30 a.m. Thursday to renew his license but could not understand the instructions given to him by an officer on how print out a form via the touch screen computers. The officer noticed the man's breath smelled of alcohol and asked him how he came to the station. Moriya said he walked.

Another officer then tried to help but Moriya became out of control and threw his license on the ground. The officer asked him to go home, and saw Moriya get into a car in a parking lot outside and drive away. He was arrested for drunk driving about 200 meters from the station.

Moriya told police he had been drinking since about 6 a.m. and had consumed two cans of beer and several glasses of shochu. A breath test revealed he had 0.45 milligrams of alcohol in his breath per liter exhaled.

© News reports

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65 Comments
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The officer asked him to go home, and saw Moriya get into a car in a parking lot outside and drive away

JCops - best in the world.

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Sometimes they catch themselves. I guess his license won't be getting renewed - ever!

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Gotta love it!

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..He was arrested for drink driving about 200 meters from the station..

I love how these people catch not the bad guys but only a person who really having a bad luck on that day. If this guy go to the home directly he would safely go to bed and wake up with hangover, that's it.

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Hard to keep a straight face with this one. Then again I suppose the cops deserve a round of applause for getting this clown off the streets.

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since when do you go to the police station to renew your license? I have to go to the local testing centre.

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This is a Charlie Chaplin movie, isn't it?

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Probably being considered for recruitment by the keystones, he sounds qualified, and out of work at the moment.

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Unemployed person drinking shochu at 6am. Now I see why he is unemployed. Maybe the temper is a factor as well. Loser

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Thumbs up to the cops on this one. If the guy had walked as he said he had, then there was no problem with him renewing his license that way. They obviously jumped straight in the police car when they saw him try to drive off and got him just 200m down the road.

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This would have been hilarious to watch? Hope to get the security video on the net.

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The cop should have told him that part of the test was to spin around 20 times while looking up at the ceiling.....and videoed it for youtube.

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I wonder if we can visit this guy in jail and ask him some questions. Seems pretty clueless.

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these people catch not the bad guys but only a person who really having a bad luck on that day.

Yeah, total bad luck that he'd been drinking since early morning and was so plastered he couldn't understand instructions on how to touch a screen...or keep his temper. You really want a moron like that behind the wheel of a car?

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Shoulda postponed the shochu on such an important occasion. What, man, have you no patience?

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Good on this guy for being stupid and the even stupider cops caught him. Well I'll give it to them. They aren't as stupid as this guy was. I can compromise.

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6am's a bit early for drinking.

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6am's a bit early for drinking.

Not if you are an unemployed, violent, drunk-driving piece of trash.

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Alcohol always gives such inspiration: Oh, I know what I'll do today--renew my driver's license!!

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And the cops let him get in a car and drive?

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Darwin award!

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drinking at 6 AM? Proboly an alcholic...dude needs to get into AA not a jail. Hope he gets the help he needs...

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ahocchau...why all the hate man? Relax...this man needs help.

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My thoughts exactly @meloveyoulongtime. This seemed almost like a cry for help

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meloveulongtime - hate is better than risking innocent lives because you need your shochu fix at 6am and decide to drive.

Apologies to the drunk driving sympathisers

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His blood/alcohol level was half the NZ legal limit. It has been proved by test after test that a level of less than 100mg per liter has zero effect on driving ability. For a man of around 80 kg that is about 3 cans of 5.0% beer plus one an hour after that and 2 if you are eating.

Yes he was breaking the law but I disagree completely that he caused anyone any danger.

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michealgtodd:

That may be true for caucasians but many orientals have a very very low tolerance for alchohol due to a genetic inability to produce a certain enzyme.

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.45 blood alcohol concentration is high and the man was likely very intoxicated. No way he should have been behind the wheel.

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Yes he was breaking the law but I disagree completely that he caused anyone any danger.

If it is not dangerous, why is it illegal?

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Lots of things that are not dangerous are illegal....... soft drugs for example. Drink driving is illegal precisely because it has the potential to cause harm to others.

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did techall just say ORIENTALS? is that still used? And his body didnt produce an enzyme so he was drunk even though his alcohol to blood ratio was low? Whats next? He also had a camera around his neck and his name was Morimoto?

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potential to cause harm to others? that sounds like dangerous to me. maybe I need an English lesson!

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@ahocchau Illegal to make it easy for the cops I guess. Ridiculous law and extremely inconvenient if you just want to have a couple of beers after playing golf etc on ahot day at a place you cannot get a train home from. Very uncivilised rule I feel.

@techall That has not proved to be the case in New Zealand where 20% or so of the population is Asian. No evidence that sians are having more accidents than anyone else

@dolphingirl .45 level is like having 1.5 or even 2 small (340ml) cans of beer in an hour up to an hour ago. Cannot believe that anyone is even slightly intoxicated by that.

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michealgtodd: I think you have misplaced your decimal points. According to Wikipedia, "Unless a person has developed a high tolerance for alcohol, a BAC rating of 0.20% represents very serious intoxication, and 0.35%–0.40% represents potentially fatal alcohol poisoning. 0.40% is the accepted LD50, the dose that is lethal for 50% of adult humans."

Obviously, the man was experienced at what he was doing.

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Ridiculous law and extremely inconvenient

Sorry if not allowing you to drink and drive puts you out a little, but some people feel like protecting their children and themselves from 6am shochu drinking scumbags who drive is more important than your beers and golf.

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@michaelgtodd:

Not all asians have this genetic condition, some Japanese i know can drink right along with the best of us others are s**tfaced after half a beer. I didn't make this up, it's science.

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yourock at 10:21 AM JST - 5th February since when do you go to the police station to renew your license? I have to go to the local testing centre.

Depends on, which schedule fits you better. For me it was easier to go to the licensing center, because I wanted an upgrade on my license for small trucks up to approx. 8 tons.

For my wife, it was more convenient to go to the designated police station. Not every police station, only the central ones specially designated for it, because one needs to watch a video and has an eyesight test.

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And the cops let him get in a car and drive?

My thoughts exactly. What if in the 200 yards he was driving were he to hit someone or a group of people? I'd like to know how the police would explain that one.

Pinheads the lot of them.LUCKILY...he didn't hit anyone and hopefully won't be driving again any time soon. Then again this is Japan.

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Dude needs help...I hope he gets it...simple as that

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and ahocchau...I feel sorry for you too...you see in black and white...no use arguing with you anyways....

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Today's recipient of the Darwin Award

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Looks like this guy wss a habitual drinker; so much that it did not occur in his mind that he might want to refrain from drinking before going to a police station to renew his DL. As though it was just part of his routine to consume alcohol; get in a vehicle and go about the rest of his business.

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Today's recipient of the Darwin Award.

Not quite. Those are strictly post-mortem awards.

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@NetteMarie You are right about the iron deficiency and it is probably the reason for the zero alcohol drinking limit here. This dude may have been getting enough iron.Especially if his breakfast beers were Guiness

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Ah yes! A real looser! What kind of an idiot looser starts drinking from 6 am?? This looser is lucky he did not hurt or kill anybody while drunk then driving. It would be racist to say only Asians. Orientals, Japanese etc..are this stupid because we all know that idiot loosers come in all shapes and colors! I hope this fool gets locked up to sober up for a good long time and that he never gets another driver license again! Throw the book at this drunk scum bag! Think of all the innocent people who have been hurt or killed by scum like this! Just look up MADD, Mothers against drunk drivers.

Moderator: Please learn the difference between "looser" and "loser."

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@m5c32: Nope.

Darwin Awards are for those taking themselves out of the gene pool, not for killing themselves.

Dying is only one way to prevent your ability to make babies.

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@elbudamexicano: The word you should use is "loser", not "looser".

Also, MADD stands for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Subtle but significant difference.

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No more apologies or excuses please, there is no justification for drinking beer and shochu before driving, whatever the time of day or night.

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if they have low tolerance to alcohol why do they drink like fish? Don't they have AA here? They either don't know how to take care of themselves, or don't know how to ask for help, or rather there isn't any available. Still no reason not to try.

Moderator: Readers, the alcohol tolerance of Asians in general is not relevant to this particular discussion. That is too broad a topic. Please focus your comments on what is in the story.

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I can believe this guy is unemployed.

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I suppose the cops deserve a round of applause for getting this clown off the streets.

Easy with the 'omedetou' there. The guy wasn't arrested because of diligent police patrolling. The drunkard stumbled in to the koban. Only after Officer Yamada woke up, took a piss, and smoked a couple Mild Sevens was the guy arrested.

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A breath test revealed he had 0.45 milligrams of alcohol in his breath per liter exhaled

Complete nonsense. That reading is impossible, he would not be able to stand - or even move - with that reading, let alone drive a car. It is in the comatose range. I hope he challenges the testing/equipment/reading and gets off.

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Talk about being stupid in a no stupid zone...

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WOW, is the first thought that entered my mind. I thought that perhaps there was a typographic error or that they used another measurement that I was unaware of.

For those of you who think that driving with a 0.45 mL/L ratio is just fine, think again.

I don't care WHICH country you are from it is WAY over the legal limit. Most countries have a legal limit of .08 mL/L but many are now going for lower limits such as 0.05 mL/L.

Even at levels as low as 0.03, studies have shown some impairment in judgement, motor reactions and so forth. I'm sure that you could also find studies that negate those findings because the BAC level will have different affects on different people depending on many factors. So, to avoid any argument, it's probably best to adapt a 'better safe than sorry' attitude.

With a BAC of 0.45 it would be amazing if this man could even walk straight. It's a no wonder that he was unable to understand the test. The accepted LD (lethal dose) for 50% of the population is 0.40%. Of course, affects will vary with individuals and people who are alcoholics will develop a higher tolerance.

As for people condemning the police, I am a bit on the fence. First, they recognized that he was obviously inebriated (which is probably the main reason why they sent him home). They did ask how he got to the station to which he said that he walked which suggests that he was aware enough that he was drunk and needed to lie. Perhaps they could have been a bit more subtle with their questioning and asked where he parked his car, which might have elicited a more truthful answer.

In any case, they did watch him exit and get into his car, but they should have arrested him the moment he got into his car and not wait until he drove away. This may suggest that they were either very gullible or really slow. I am glad that they managed to stop him, however, as I am sure that it was only blind luck that he made it there without any incident (that we know of).

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This dude is either the dumbest man alive or the smartest chimp wearing pants...

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This dude is either the dumbest man alive or the smartest chimp wearing pants...

HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA

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Well not all people work during daylight hours. However he did not work at all and it is not surprising with his alcohol blood level. The surprising part is that he was still alive! I wonder how he gets money for his habit? About not arresting him when he got in his car, perhaps he might have used it to sleep it off but with that level it would take a long time. My other question is he ever sober?

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Hard to believe that those, that are drunk, can be in such a mind of stupidity. It is like trying to be in a m/c shop asking if you can take out a new m/c while in that state of mind---plain stupidity.

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.....maybe he drives better while drunk.......

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LOL... Too funny to criticize this guy, he has a future in the entertainment industry, in Japan of course...

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Drivers renewals at a police station? A novel and good idea,I only wish we were doing that sort of thing in N.Y!

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pure awesomeness

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200 meters? its pretty obvious he pissed off the cops, and they let him drive off just so they could roll him a couple blocks away.

one thing any cop hates the most is being lied to.

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That was a good laugh...

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