- 14 Mar 2002
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Desperate times: a series of home burglaries in the Kanto area and elsewhere have alarmed the police and the population. The perpetrators are recruited via social media (the media mentioned Instagram and Telegram) and paid up to 1m JPY per hit. Last Thursday, a 90-year-old lady in Komae (our neighbourhood, basically) was battered to death. She was found with open fractures, broken kneecaps and shoeprints all over her body.
The burglar from Ishikawa, who was arrested in Chiba, stated that the gang members had never met before the heist and had no information about who the ringleaders were.
Police believe Oshio's murder may have been carried out by the same gang that has been responsible for at least 10 house robberies and jewelry store thefts in several prefectures in the Kanto region, as well as Hiroshima and Yamaguchi prefectures since November.
Earlier on Thursday afternoon, police in Chofu, Tokyo, received a call from Chiba police, saying that a message on the smartphone of a man arrested on Jan 12 for a robbery in Oamishirasato, Chiba Prefecture, indicated that Oshio's house was being targeted for a job. The smartphone belonged to a Self-Defense Force member in his 20s from Mie Prefecture . NHK reported Sunday that gang members are believed to have been recruited on an Instagram site. The mobile phone of Rikuto Nagata, 21, who was arrested for a Nakano house robbery in which six men stole 30 million yen, also listed several addresses in Adachi Ward, including one residence which was robbed. Another message contained the words "Komae City" with a comment, "I will contact you once there is an opening."
The burglar from Ishikawa, who was arrested in Chiba, stated that the gang members had never met before the heist and had no information about who the ringleaders were.
Police said the escalating series of robberies are becoming more violent. At first, elderly victims in their homes were bound but in the most recent cases, victims have been beaten with hammers and other blunt objects to force them to hand over cash and items of value.
Murder of 90-year-old woman linked to online site recruiting members for house robberies
Police investigating the murder of a 90-year-old woman at her house in Komae, Tokyo, last week, said that information on mobile phones confiscated from suspects in two robberies in Tokyo's Nakano Ward, and Chiba Prefecture, listed the Komae house as a target for a "job." Kinuyo Oshio was found dead…
japantoday.com
Robbers of east Japan homes suspected of striking other areas - The Mainichi
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Members of a group suspected of staging robberies across east Japan are believed to have been involved in similar crimes in two weste
mainichi.jp