crime

Two men steal Y37 million from pachinko exchange center in Saitama

32 Comments

Two men held up a pachinko exchange center in Omiya, Saitama Prefecture, on Monday night, and made off with 37 million yen in cash, police said.

According to police, one of the men approached the exchange center door as a female employee left on her break just after 6 p.m. He entered the building and threatened another female employee with a handgun and ordered her to put cash in a bag he was carrying. The second man acted as a lookout. The pair escaped on a motorbike. No exchange center employees were injured in the robbery, police said.

According to witnesses, the first man used a combination of Japanese and broken English. He was described as being 160-165 cm in height and was dressed entirely in black. The other man was 175-180 cm in height. Both men wore motorcycle helmets. As the men escaped, some witnesses reported hearing a loud bang similar to a handgun discharging.

© News reports

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32 Comments
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sarahsuz25.

Got a point, said that I know many foreigners in japan that can't or can barely speak english.

What is is with the stereotype "Foreigner = english speaker".

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These crooks really are dumb--if they were foreigners they would be more likely to speak broken Japanese, not perfect Japanese and broken English.

There have been a few cases like this in my area lately. One was an old guy who said he was robbed by foreigners, but upon further investigation, he was not robbed by anybody and had made up the story because he owed a lot of money to a loan shark and wanted to avoid having to pay it back. Then there were some dumb kids who ran into a convenience store screaming "Manee! manee!" at the clerk, and then had to drop the act and explain in Japanese to the confused clerk what they wanted, and then left yelling out more random English words. I think some of these people think that pretending to be foreigners means they'll be less likely to be caught, but if anything I think it makes the police give the cases more scrutiny, since crimes involving foreigners are highly publicized.

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Pachinko parlors give away special RFID cards as "prizes", which you can then take to a pachinko exchange center to sell for cash. It's a loophole to let them skirt the law.

You know, kind of like buying presents for whores instead of paying them cash.

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I wonder how....somebody knew...that they were using broken english?

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Pachinko parlours are taxed and the government would never shut them down because the owners pay vast sums in tax. The machines record all money put through them so it is difficult to under-declare the revenue. But so much money goes through the machines, the owners still make enough after taxes. But the owners' costs are high too. One machine costs up to 500,000 yen and they have to change all the machines every 3 months or so in order to have the latest models to attract customers. Most parlours have hundreds of machines. Do the math there. It's big bickies. My good friend, who is Korean-Japanese and whose father runs a parlour, remembers young tattooed yakuza guys washing his father's back at the local bathhouse.

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TokyoLurker

once again, framing foreigners..

"Framing foreigners" has nothing to do with the story. . . 'Foreigners' who commit crimes should be identified, whatever their nationality.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Two Nova Students stealing from us foreigners , Well we will just have to make a smaller declaration on our tax returns next financial year "suckers"

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Pachinko is for losers. Do I feel sorry for these guys? Not really, but Saitama is well...Saitama, not one of Japan's best places, you know, kind of like a suburban Osaka.

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Bad money stolen by bad people. I have no sympathy with pachinco as they also looted that money from people through gambling machines.

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Nice score boys!!

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I`ve never heard that Pachinko is not taxed. Anyone care to confirm or debunk?

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Maybe Kim Jong Il needed a little cash to pay for the party he just threw in Pyongyang! The way I see it this is a case of thieves ripping off thieves. I'm sure it'll get alot of attention from the police though, since it might affect some bonuses and holiday party money!

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Raymasaki: They are run illegally, the police don't crack down on it because it makes too much money... nearly all sex shops and pachinko places pay protection money to the yakuza or have a formal high level deal to retain their services for "security" or "consulting" ...

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37M pretty good take, looks like North Korea will need to kidnap a couple more people.

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once again, framing foreigners..

too bad, broken english is the key :P

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Pachinko Parlors make money selling little silver balls or coins that people use to entertain themselves and win gifts of cigarettes, chocolate bars, ball pens and various other items. And its another shop that is willing to exchange the prizes for cash (smile). Thus the work-around on the gambling issue. (smile) Yes, Pachinko is a Korean business.

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Raymasaki, they do give away prizes, but those prizes ca be changed into cash at an "exchange center", right next to the pachinko parlor. a simple and efficient scheme. Most of the parlors are run by Koreans, but with the blessing of yakuza (and an appropriate fee). those two punks better pray that the police gets them first

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to all newbies pachinko is NOT illegal "pachinko parlors" are all over Japan & shown in J-movies & J-Dramas they are slot machines. and give away Prizes NOT cash. NOT every one of them is run by the "Yakuza" saitama & Osaka yeah. they shouldn't have had that much cash in the place.

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I've always thought that those places had lax security in proportion to the amount of money at risk. All they needed was a toy gun, two helmets and a motorcycle. Each person got more money than they would make in a year, way too easy! If these guys are that successful with that little trouble, expect a wave of copycat attempts coming to a pachislot near you.

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The brandished a handgun, which could just have easily have been a n air gun those darn things are everywhere.

Gotta give the 2 kreds though, they robbed the robbers.

Also, I think that they would choose to rob the pachinko places more than the banks because the pachinko places have more money.

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Pachinko parlours are not owned by the Yakuza. They are owned by the Koreans. In fact if you believe the claims of many, some of the money from the pachinko parlours goes to North Korea.

I have also read that the pachinko industry has a close relationship with the Japanese police. Donating to police pensions and offering jobs in the pachinko parlours to retiring police officers.

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Part 2: Just goes to show how much money goes through these "uhum" illegal betting places. And, they don't pay any tax on it. Wake up Japan! The J-Gov should have shut this sham down years ago! Or, at least acknowledged it and taxed the bastards heavily!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

37 million yen? I want some!

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Oceans 2?

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Perfect day to rob the place as well, on a national holiday 3 day weekend.

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Broken English? Definitely a Japanese national. That is a dead give away.

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I am soo surprised this hasnt happened more often not just at Pachinko exchange but at banks, post offices (banks) etc. I cant believe how easy it is to commit crime in this country and more so surprised it hasnt happened.

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Its all dirty money.

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They deserve respect for stealing from yakuza.

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Can't feel sorry for them, pachinko is a double standard as gambling is illegal in Japan.

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As the men escaped, some witnesses reported hearing a loud bang similar to a handgun discharging.

Or a Motorbike back-firing?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

My kid wants the same gun at Donki (cap gun). They threw in the English words to throw off the cops to gaijins. Score.

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