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Two armed men forced their way into a Japan Agricultural Co-operative branch in Toon, Ehime Prefecture, on Monday night and stole 8 million yen from the vault, police said Tuesday. Police said the incident occurred at around 7:50 p.m.
The two men were allegedly carrying a knife and a crowbar when they forced their way into the staff entrance of the JA office. According to police, a single member of the staff, a 43-year-old man, was on duty at the time. The two men allegedly threatened him and forced him to open the vault.
Police said the robbers then bound the employee's upper body with adhesive tape and locked him in the vault. The man was able to contact police by mobile phone and was eventually released. Police said his ordeal lasted around two hours.
According to police, a 180-strong team of officers has been mobilized to track down the robbers.
© Compiled from news reports
12 Comments
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minello7
"According to police, a 180-strong team of officers has been mobilized to track down the robbers."is this the norm, or is this show of police manpower because of the power of JA. Would the same response be for example a convenience store robbery?
Yubaru
Thieves wouldnt get 8,000,000 yen from a conbini so one would have to guess that no the cops wouldn't be out in such a force. Plus with the rash of robberies going on here recently I would also lay a bet that the show of force is to be taken as a deterrent to anyone contemplating doing the same thing in the future.
badokun
I find it shocking that you'd have one guy 'guarding' that amount of cash. Secondly that it only takes a knife and a crowbar to get the job done. It's way too easy to steal in this country.
combinibento
The real surprise in this story is that there is actually really a place called "Toon" town. Was Roger Rabbit driving the getaway car?
nath
180!! wow, that is a little over kill. Was there that many officers looking for the nova teacher killer?
Speed
Yeah, the name of the town, "Toon" was created when a few of the towns in that area merged a few years ago. It's actually pronounced "toe" "own". They should've spelled it "Tou-on" rather than "Toon-town".
TokyoGas
Headline from Toon-Town Times:
Toon-town Co-op robbed! Officers Chip and Dale put 180 coppers on the case.
SquidBert
@Osakadaz , Yeah I know, and I was wondering how many of them there were ?
my2sense
As I always say- you could knock over a pachinko joint or bank with a squirt gun making fart noises in this country. Perps on CCTV- medium build, black hair, 175cms, Asian with his mate the same, suspects?- the local yak house and dispatch 180 cops (in bed with em). Knock-over jobs in Japan are entertaining to read about in Japan as people rarely get killed. Still the safest country on the planet. I would love to witness a robbery here as I would scream "FBI f-ing freeze" and they would... I would probably still be laughing when the cops showed up and tell them I hate bicycles. Love it. And if you're a gaijin you won't need the squirt gun...just make a pistol with your hand and growl words in Chinese.... and remember the CCTV so use panty hose and the bank doors pull in. Ask a Japanese next time you're at the ginko why the doors do that and you should get colorful answers. Bong!
my2sense
PS- "armed men"... put this in the NY Times and no one would believe the story... Just apply the squirt gun, duct tape, wimp, flatulence noises and a $100K heist...now that is a story.
Elbuda Mexicano
Me thinks inside job!