Two men and one woman of Colombian citizenship were arrested on Thursday for theft, accused of breaking into an apartment in Itabashi Ward with an iron bar on Feb 27 and stealing cash, a camera, and other goods worth about 270,000 yen in total.
Police said Alejandro Sanchez, a 34-year-old unemployed resident of Tokorozawa City in Saitama Prefecture, who has already been charged with violating the Immigration Law, has admitted to the allegation as has the other man and woman, who were not identified.
Police said that the trio entered Japan in December and are investigating if they were involved in up to 70 similar robberies, all in apartments on the top floor of buildings in Tokyo and Saitama, stealing goods estimated to total around 50 million yen.
The trio told police they looked from the ground for which apartments had their lights out, and confirmed whether anyone was home. They said if they targeted the apartments on the top floor, even if the resident came home, they would still have time to get out. The woman stayed on the first floor of the building as lookout. If someone did come into the lobby, she would call the men by radio and tell them to get out of the apartment.
The trio said they did it to help their families back home with living expenses.
© News reports
17 Comments
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cow76
If this is the most serious foreign crime that JT can come up with, it seems fair to say that foreign crime is not a big problem in Japan.
combinibento
Good riddance.
Altria
Colombians + Saitama residents = ???
shoguinn1
People like that gives all a bad image
thundercat
3 stooges
soldave
cow76 - quite, although you'll notice how it's the top crime story today in Japan according to JT.
BBLeo
Solution with this three stooges is to deport them from Japan immediately.
boboh
shoquinn1-who? people, thieves, Colombians or foreigners in general?
PepinGalarga
Manny: - What's this with the Colombians? Tony: - What does it matter? Manny: - He says "Colombians," and you make these eyes...
guess from which movie...
Elbuda Mexicano
I am not Colombian, but I just wonder why the Japanese Immigration let them into Japan in the first place, even Mexico is super strict with Colombians and with many other South Americans "on vacation" in Mexico but with true intentions to steal, etc..like these 3 idiots who were arrested in Tokyo. Good ridence and I hope the new electronic fingering and retina technology will keep them out of Japan for ever and ever!
mpena
I'm Colombia living in Japan, working for a software company and I'm not a theft. I think this behavior does not represent the Colombian people in general and gives a bad image of our people.
The problem is not to be "super strict" with Colombian people, the problem is to be very careful about illegal immigrants from any country since illegal entries always mean troubles. As South American I respect all South Americans and our culture and I'm disagreed with all that people who thinks that such crime acts are the colombian normal behavior.
There are theft all over the world.
LostinNagoya
Elbudamexicano:
Isn´t it the same with US and Mexicans crossing the border,ilegally?
PepinGalarga
I can say for a fact that Latin mentality is diametrically opposite from Japanese. We tend to get things done (yeah we get it right the first time most of the time haha), but with much less stress. Every single day I have to try to adapt my behavior to adapt to local people, and I'm not doing too good at it.
This type of cultural clash results in this increased scrutiny regarding Colombian or other nationalities, which the Japanese normally do not understand.
aikisako
yeah I can see how -hard- it is for the Jpanese to understand some Colombians -stealing- from them. What are you trying to say?
PepinGalarga
of course its impossible to accept 3 Colombians robbing locals, but that should not translate into major generalizations about foreigners being more propense to a life of crime.
aikisako
except for the 3 Colombians. s-h-e-e-s-h
Elbuda Mexicano
Back to these 3 fools from Colombia, stop giving the good, hard working Latinos in Japan (many Colombians, Peruvians, Brazilians are the hardest workers in all of Japan) a bad name.