Crime Daylight robbery at Ginza Rolex store

Four teenagers were arrested on May 8 after masked robbers at a luxury watch store in Tokyo's Ginza district committed a heist so brazen that onlookers thought it was a movie shoot. The teens are suspected of trespassing in an apartment in their apparent flight from the crime scene, police said. According to Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department, three robbers, dressed in black and wearing white masks, forced their way into Quark Ginza 888, a store specializing in Rolex watches, in Tokyo's Chuo Ward around 6:15 p.m. on 8 May. They threatened a store clerk with knives, smashed display cases with crowbars, and stole more than 100 wristwatches before fleeing in a white getaway van that was parked outside the store, investigative sources said. The store is located on Chuo-dori, the tourist-busy main street of Ginza. The area, a hub for luxury fashion brands and popular stores, is the equivalent of New York's Fifth Avenue and Paris' Les Champs-Elysees.

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Majestic said:

This was definitely an unusual thing to see. Yami-baito would be my guess, too, but what a stupid way to rob a high-end watch store.

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The young bandits have told police they were strangers who met for the first time on the "job." The utterly brazen, strangely amateurish heist bore all the hallmarks of yami-baito, or black-market part-time jobs, an increasingly lucrative angle for criminal groups allowing them to outsource scams and burglaries to the young, naïve and financially desperate. With the use of yami-baito, it's possible for such gangs to do the crime without doing the time.

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According to the sources, while the three were stuffing watches into bags, one of them was heard saying: "It's still OK. We have 30 seconds left." The Metropolitan Police Department said those words indicate that plans, including a strict schedule, had been compiled beforehand. The license plate of the van they used for their getaway matched the number for a vehicle reported stolen in Kawaguchi, a city directly north of Tokyo, on 7 May.

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Trapped in a dead-end alley not even two miles away, the suspects scattered on foot — still being recorded on various dumbstruck witnesses' smartphones. One surrendered after literally being talked off a ledge. Another hysterically begged police to stop hurting him while he was being subdued. Less than an hour after the episode began, all four, including the getaway driver, were in custody.

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Majestic said:

Will be interesting to see how the justice system, and how society, the press, etc...treats these dorks.
Juvenile detention for the youngest guys, I guess. The 18-year old will be in for some rough justice, and he'll be regretting a few things, I think.

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According to Funakubo, regular prices for Rolex watches hovered around 600,000 to 700,000 JPY (approx. USD 4,470 to 5,220) some 20 to 30 years ago, slightly cheaper than they are now, and customers could purchase new ones for retail prices. If stores had a sale, they would often be sold for below their sticker prices. Around five years ago, however, Rolex prices began soaring. The famous Daytona model is priced at some 1.8 million JPY (approx. USD 13,420), but their secondhand items are traded for 4 million JPY (approx. USD 29,820) or more on the market. Likewise, the brand's Submariner model, whose price tag is around 1.4 million to 1.5 million JPY (approx. USD 10,400 to 11,200), is traded for roughly 2.5 million to 3 million JPY (approx. USD 18,600 to 22,400).

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According to the ruling, Shoma Torii and four others, some masked, conspired to break into the store at around 6:20 p.m. on May 8, stealing 74 items worth about 308.6 million yen ($2.1 million). Prosecutors had sought seven years' imprisonment for the defendant. In handing down the ruling, Judge Madoka Hiruta of the Tokyo District Court said it was an organized and premeditated crime in which the offenders covered their faces and violently smashed display cases to steal the items. The judge determined Torii played a subordinate but vital role in the robbery as he threatened store employees with a knife. It was the first ruling over the high-profile Ginza heist. Of the five arrested, four have been indicted, while the Yokohama Family Court has decided to send the remaining one to a juvenile reformatory. Among the four indicted, three are aged 18 and 19, but their names have been made public following a revision to Japan's Juvenile Law in 2022 along with the lowering of the legal age of adulthood from 20 to 18 that allows the media to reveal the names and faces of 18- and 19-year-old offenders accused of committing serious crimes in Japan.

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thomas said:

According to police reports, Monday's heist included 70 Rolex watches worth over 250 million JPY. Due to supply shortages, the robbery may be linked to extraordinary price surges for the brand's used items in the market. Their values even surpass the original price tags.





If someone tried to resell stolen brand watches, dealers across Japan would already have been informed, so the only way to monetise the loot would be on the black market.

Rolex shop heist in Tokyo may be linked to extraordinary price surges - The Mainichi

TOKYO -- The recent heist at a Rolex specialty store in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district occurred amid extraordinary price surges for the brand's used i

mainichi.jp

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