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Police on Friday said they are searching for a thief who stole change from five vending machines in Hachioji.
According to police, three vending machines in Kamiongata were found to have been torched in order to provide access to the coin storage compartment at about 6:20 a.m. on Thursday, TV Asahi reported. About 40 minutes later, two more tobacco vending machines located 7 kilometers away in Inume were found to have been robbed using the same method. The amount stolen from the two machines was estimated to have been around 40,000 yen.
In total, police say that around 31 machines in 26 locations have been robbed using the same modus operandi since March.
© Japan Today
10 Comments
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SimondB
With Y40,000 in coin you are not going to be buying any high end products. You can take them to the bank and change them to notes but they charge a whopping 17% to do so. I learnt this after buying several of those 100 yen cans to save coins in and did so dilllegently for about 5 years. Carried an arm breaking bag of coins down to the bank and then found out the 17% (might have been 16%) charge.
Jan Claudius Weirauch
Vending machines also take bank notes in Japan, and the bank does not charge 17% or what.
TheDevilsAssistant
modus operandi
couldn't just say same method, or something normal here?
gaijinfo
So let me get this straight.
1) guy sets fire to a vending machine.
2) waits for the thing to burn to the ground
3) then breaks in and steals the cash
And during this whole process, NOBODY has the sense to call the cops? There's a vending machine engulfed in flames, and some guy is hanging out next to it, and people are like, "Oh, he must work for the vending machine company, I guess everything is A-OK!"
darknuts
Hope they catch the guy. Japanese vending machines are awesome. Unlike the American-built crap, they actually work 99% of the time.
BurakuminDes
Seems like a pretty tough gig for a thief just to make a few hundred bucks in coins!
Chiyoda_Boy
Banks do charge to change money but it is free to pay into an account. I put 62,000 yen of 1 yen, 5 yen and 10 yen into my account for free. So just ask them to put it into your account first, then just withdraw it from the ATM 2 minutes later...
TranslucentMicrocosm
Maybe that person was wanting baked goods instead?