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A 29-year-old man was robbed Tuesday night after he had stopped to let off a mother and son pair of hitchhikers he had picked up earlier near Koga City in Shiga Prefecture, police said Wednesday.
According to police, the driver was on his way home from work on Tuesday night when at about 6:30 p.m., he stopped to pick up a woman in her 30s and her 5 or 6 year-old son who were walking along the road in Ritto City. The pair got into the back seat, and the woman requested to be dropped off at the Shigaraki area in Koga City. After traveling about five kilometers, the group reached Otsu City when the son complained "I have to go to the bathroom," and the woman requested the driver stop.
When the pair got out, the driver's door was suddenly opened and a man reached in and hit the driver on the back of the head once, then choked him until he lost consciousness. He woke up about 5 1/2 hours later and found himself in his car, which was parked on a road in Koga City about 20 kilometers from where he had stopped. The 15,000 yen in cash in his wallet was missing.
Police believe the group was a family who had thought of the plot to pose as hitchhikers and rob drivers at a pre-arranged spot.
© News reports
22 Comments
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whatanidiot
5-6 y/o son... what an education !!
TheguyNextdoor
Thats why you don't pick up strangers! Dumb@$$
coopers
All that effort for 15,000?
Stanley50
And that other story said entrepreneurship in Japan was down.
stirfry
imaginative...rare for the locals
timorborder
Police believe the group was a family who had thought of the plot to pose as hitchhikers and rob drivers at a pre-arranged spot.
What insight by the boys in blue.
ogtob
"When the pair got out, the driver’s door suddenly opened...." Guy clearly was not aware of his surroundings either.
LFRAgain
I don't think it's quite accurate to say that the 5-year-old was "posing" as anything. I doubt the kid had any idea what his parents were doing was wrong. They probably told him it was a game or somesuch.
Foul beings, these,ahem, parents.
jason6
This recession is hastening the disintegration of Japanese society. I just did a 1000km hitchhiking trip round Kyushu and Honshu, had an amazing time. It's sad to know that this kind of trip will become as rare as it is now all over the world.
ultradodgy
My spidey sense is telling me there is more to this story... awfully good fortune for the driver, after 5 kms, to stop exactly where the accomplice was waiting...
namabiru4me
Knocked out for 5 1/2 hours? Stopping RIGHT where the accomplice was expecting?? A 5 year-old being that on cue???
strange!!!
Crimsonsil
They left him his car?
moonbeams
My Spidey sense says that the "father" followed from behind.
dishdash
Wow in all my time in Japan I have never heard of this one - gropers, molesters, keitai pervs etc sure but this is new. How ironic would it be if this group targeted by accident once of the crazies that exist in Japan - that would give the husband or wife who planned this a definite wake up call - the predator becomes the prey!
martyman
I am not sure, but it sounds like the man fabricated this story so he wouldn't get into trouble with his wife after losing the money at a Pachinko Parlor. Or he was not paying attention to his surroudings very well and was carjacked.
WMD
Trust no one, be on your guard at all times and most importantly, learn how to fight at close quarters.
MeanRingo
I bet they're carnies who have lost their jobs due to the recession. Chills. I hate carnies.
hellhound
what a trip
ThonTaddeo
What's to be surprised about? She probebly told the kid to express his desire for a bathroom break when they entered Otsu, or passed a certain store, or whatever. Even if the accomplice wasn't following directly behind them, he could have been waiting at the spot where she directed the driver to stop.
Den Den
namabiro4me is on to it. knocked out many folk, but never for 5 1/2 hours.
nimbus
Something fishy about this story. Things don't add up. I can believe that he is out for five and a half hours if he was drugged, but not from choking.
bamboohat
Dude got rolled is all, and made up the stuff about the mom and the kid to cover his tracks.
Or maybe he just spent all his cash drinking where he shouldn't have been, passed out in his car, and then made up the story to cover his tracks. any medical corroboration of his injuries is strangely missing from this story.