Hungry gang members eat 351 lunches and run

Friday 30th October, 08:56 AM JST

HYOGO —

A supposed leader of a gang associated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, his wife and another member were arrested Thursday after they were accused of eating 351 bentos (boxed lunches) over a four-week period without paying.

Kenzo Sato, 62, his wife Itsuko, 53, and fellow gang member Kazuo Jin, 47, are accused of ordering and not paying for lunches from a Kobe delivery bento shop 53 times between July 11 and Aug 10, running up a total bill of 145,000 yen.

According to police, the three have admitted to the charges, and said that they repeatedly told the manager of the shop that they would pay later. They could not be located after Aug 10, and on September 28 the manager filed for damages.

The three were originally arrested for not paying for 600,000 yen worth of stays at a hotel in Miki city.

Wire reports

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Latest 15 of 35 Total Comments Show All

animallover at 02:31 PM JST - 30th October

Sounds that the economic crisis affects gang members too. Hope the shopowner gets his money back.
Hephatsheput at 05:25 PM JST - 30th October

These people offer protection for the bento shop all these years, and the shop owner turns around and does this to them? They kept him safe all these years. That ingrate has a wake up call coming.
LFRAgain at 06:21 PM JST - 30th October

heh!
BBLeo at 06:39 PM JST - 30th October

...between July 11 and Aug 10, ... Why was manager waiting for so long to report this case to police?
biglittleman at 06:52 PM JST - 30th October

They can eat all the free lunches they want in jail.
dolphingirl at 06:54 PM JST - 30th October

Yeah, as others have said--Why did it take so long for the manager to do something? That's a lot of bentos! Were they threatening him? Did they have some kind of arrangement? Bizzare.
Blue_Tiger at 07:50 PM JST - 30th October

In other places, if you didn't pay, you'd likely not get the food. Only in Japan......
evaganda at 10:46 PM JST - 30th October

DUH!
JHansen at 11:08 PM JST - 30th October

The headline made me think that they ate 351 lunches at one time, as in the whole gang was there and then everyone ran out! That would have been funny. Heck they could have filmed it and then made enough money off the film to pay for the lunches.
fondofj at 02:38 AM JST - 31st October

The headline made me think that they ate 351 lunches at one time, as in the whole gang was there and then everyone ran out! That would have been funny. Heck they could have filmed it and then made enough money off the film to pay for the lunches.

Haha! I also thought so. The headline gives the scene of a gang of 351 hungry eaters robbing of bento boxes in the shops of the city and flee away.
PleasureGelf at 07:51 AM JST - 31st October

Ah, imagination runs wild. Would that be a chain gang at a chain restaurant?
martyman at 11:06 PM JST - 31st October

Must be nice to have the ability to dine and dash 53 times. Lets do the math, Three people times 28 days times three meals a day equals 252. So they must of had seconds and thirds just visiting 53 times and eating 351 bentos.
sharky1 at 06:20 AM JST - 2nd November

Reminds me of the 2 guys arguing at the cash register about who would pay for lunch...they decided that they would race around the block to settle this....they took off running and never came back...
Yelnats at 03:41 PM JST - 2nd November

I thought they ate all those at the same time with a huge group of bosozoku forcing the bento makers to really work overtime, or possibly they were making their own behind the counter.
kawabunga at 04:24 PM JST - 4th November

Perhaps the bento manager should fix them one last bento.........with lots of dumplings from China!! Waaa ha ha ha ha!