Niigata policeman dismissed for stealing from coworkers
NIIGATA —
A policeman accused of stealing from coworkers was dismissed on Wednesday. The accused, 21-year-old Tsuyoshi Sato, was arrested and indicted earlier this year for stealing coworkers’ notebooks and around 410,000 yen in cash from locker rooms and police academy dormitories in Nagaoka police station in Niigata Prefecture.
Sato was quoted as saying: “I had been gambling to try and relieve stress and I needed money to pay for the habit. I stole the notebooks hoping to find material I could use to harass my coworkers.”
According to police, 14 cases of theft from police personnel took place between January 2010 and February 2011.
Compiled from news reports
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14 Comments
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Gurukun
I wonder who the police called to report the thefts?
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Badge213
Probably somesort of internal affairs unit or just regular detective work.
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kokorocloud
Gambling and material to harass his coworkers? Yep, definitely sounds like someone reliable and trustworthy, a person we can all depend on to protect us.
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ExportExpert
Great , he was looking to move up from simple petty theft to black mail, extortion and intimidation, what a jerk !!
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Disillusioned
Haven't had a criminal cop story for a week or two. Thanks JT. This is a good one.
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ironchef
Was he just dismissed only? Did he do time? I know it says he was arrested. More details please.
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hurryharry1
This one made me smile....Good point, ironchef...how about a taste of his now soup? Some jail time will teach him.
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smithinjapan
ironchef: My guess is he was just dismissed.
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LeeKun
“I had been gambling to try and relieve stress and I needed money to pay for the habit. I stole the notebooks hoping to find material I could use to harass my coworkers.”
Chotto, so he actually had the balls to say that! This guy deserves a nice kuma ken to the face!
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Maitake
a gambling habit... wonder how many other people share his habit. Pachinko is Japan's biggest industry. And the parlors are usually run by retired police...
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Novenachama
Society holds policemen to a higher standard and yet the newspaper headlines go on and on about policemen committing crimes and becoming part of the criminal element. As you look at numerous headlines involving law enforcement officers and agencies across the country, you have story after story about policemen, even prosecuters commiting crimes from dealing drugs, lying, stealing, groping to on duty sexual assaults. Then, if that isn't enough to read about how the criminal element is steadily creeping into the profession, they are in some cases lowering their standard. They say you get what you pay for. But I'm not talking about money. I'm talking about integrity. If they are continually held to a higher standard, they should work to hire new officers that meet that higher standard. It would be impossible to stop every bad apple from slipping through and finding their way into the ranks. I think that they need to require more than a high school diploma and a driver's license. In my view, the desire to become a police officer coupled with the passion to do the job no matter what, up to and including laying your life on the line, should be the intangible trait that should be focused on in the hiring process. They really need to take back their profession before its gets out of hand maybe not in Japan. But in the United States the pigs have a bad reputation. Sadly, there is a low and decling level of public respect for their behavior. There use of extra-legal force, over agressiveness, cursing, and how often have you ever seen them obey the traffic laws?
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elbudamexicano
This guy sounds like he would make a great politician or lawyer, trying to find dirt on his fellow cops??
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Patrick Smash
The police steal anyway. I had a wallet handed in that they gave back to me empty saying it had been handed in with no money in it. About 3 years later some chap introduced himself in extremely good English saying he knew my picture from my wallet. I told him I had wanted to thank him and reward him but the police would not pass on any message of thanks or give me any contact information because of privacy law. It then transpired that the 40,000-yen or so that had disappeared from my wallet had been there when he handed it in.
Good eh. Privacy Law protects police officers from getting caught stealing. They don't mind unless they take from their own.
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octopussy
This drew a chuckle.
Then again, this being Japan, I imagine eight cops coming down to the policeman locker room and interviewing the victims.
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