Police in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, have arrested a 58-year-old unemployed man on suspicion of theft after he took the purse out of a woman’s rucksack at a pachinko parlor last month.
According to police, Yukio Watanabe has admitted stealing the purse containing about 20,000 yen from the rucksack which was on the floor under the pachinko machine.
The incident occurred at around 7:20 p.m. on Oct 9, Sankei Shimbun reported. Watanabe took the money when the woman, who is in her 70s, briefly left the machine. Later, when she returned home, she noticed her purse missing from the rucksack and contacted the pachinko parlor.
Surveillance camera footage showed a man resembling Watanabe bending down and opening the woman’s rucksack.
Police said there have been a series of similar thefts at pachinko parlors in the same area and are questioning Watanabe about his involvement in those incidents.
