Stripping handbag snatcher nabbed

Wednesday 27th August, 07:42 AM JST

OSAKA —

Police in Osaka said Tuesday they have arrested a serial handbag snatcher dubbed “the chameleon” after eluding arrest for years by stripping off layers of clothing as he fled the scenes of his crimes. Hiroshi Ishihara, a 42-year-old resident of Osaka, would wear three to five T-shirts or jerseys and take them off one by one as he fled, a police official said.

“He is believed to have been snatching bags for four to five years. Our investigators had been calling him the chameleon as he changed clothes or wore camouflage outfits to merge into the background,” he said. “By the time we radioed in that the culprit was wearing black clothes, he was wearing white or red.”

Police caught Ishihara earlier this month as he cycled to his parked car after being identified on security cameras.

He had confessed to snatching more than 60 handbags, but police suspected he was responsible for 200 to 300 thefts.

Most of his victims were women he robbed as they were getting out of taxis at night, figuring they had cash.

He later pawned the handbags, police said.

Wire reports

7 Comments

OgieDoggie at 08:16 AM JST - 27th August

Obviously a wolf in sheeps clothing!
Altria at 09:42 AM JST - 27th August

He later pawned the handbags, police said.

Sounds like he pwned a lot of people too.
romulus3 at 10:17 AM JST - 27th August

I wonder where he did his clothes shopping? His capture is gonna be bad for business.
Hughgarse at 12:56 PM JST - 27th August

He had confessed to snatching more than 60 handbags, but police suspected he was responsible for 200 to 300 thefts.

Now why wouldn`t the dumb@rse just admit to the one they busted him on and say he was just copycating the chameleon?? idjit!
Bilderberg666 at 12:58 PM JST - 27th August

Hughgarse- The J Police have some quite unsubtle methods of extracting confessions from some, who may not have strong will power.

Those police make up their own rules, i hard some pretty damn awful things about their methods.
TheNewZen at 01:25 PM JST - 27th August

Hey, it worked for some time.

Maybe he should have used a bussines-suit harder to trace/describe, won't stick out among the corporate-drones either.

In one country I lived they had a spate of high-end(BMW, Mercs, etc) car thefts from shopping-centres, cops couldn't figure it out, security never saw anything wrong either.

The Thieves wore business-suits, brief-cases, well-dressed and groomed looking just like your average exec. This allowed them to operate right under security and police noses, who cares about a well-dressed guy doing stuff at an expensive car.

Got to think.
some14some at 02:16 PM JST - 27th August

Just one chameleon caught out of hundreds, Osaka unlikely to lose its position as No.1 in such robberies.