Job Discussion Forums

Dominique · Joined: 26 Aug 2004 Posts: 141 Location: Juso, Osaka

whats up with the purse snatching these days? I noticed a poster outside my apartment of some guy on a bike stealing some old ladies purse.
Has anyone heard any stories yet or seen this happening? According to my uncle, this type of crime is on the rise in Japan.

bearcat · Joined: 08 May 2004 Posts: 367

Seen cases of it almost every year here. Most cases this is what happens:

Some foolish woman(almost invariably is a woman) goes to an atm or bank and takes out ALOT of money. Said criminal or a buddy of his tags them or follows then until they get to a good place and then snatches the purse or bag with the money. Since the criminal is on a bike(scooter/motorbike) they almost always get away.

Its good that your area finally put up those posters, but I'll bet it took quite a few snatches before they put em up.

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

bearcat · Joined: 08 May 2004 Posts: 367

Most of the cases I've seen on the news involved people who had exited an ATM and were returning home etc if I remember correctly. Nets can be a deterrant but loose or not on the shoulder is a bit harder to prevent on a drive by. Again the criminals as well stake these folks out. I'm sure they profile their victims to a certain extent and pick ones they expect to not be a problem.

Rorschach · Joined: 25 Mar 2004 Posts: 130 Location: Osaka

Japanese are funny with money. It seems like everytime they go to an ATM they take out huge amounts of money to last for the month, its pretty crazy. I used to see those posters up everywhere in Kyobashi, never actually seen a purse being snatched though.

Iwantmyrightsnow · Joined: 12 Feb 2004 Posts: 202

Happens a lot. know 3 people it has hapened to in the past year alone- and one of them was a young foreign woman who tried to chase on foot to no avail.

Celeste · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 10:24 pm Post subject:

A western friend of mine went to the ATM and took out quite a lot of money to pay for airline tickets and then went home with it. She put it away and then went out again. When she returned, she found that her place had been broken into and that only the cash had been taken. Likely someone followed her from the ATM. That said, in my 3 years of living here, that is the only brush with crime that anyone I know has ever had. She was not injured, and her place was not trashed.

Iwantmyrightsnow · Joined: 12 Feb 2004 Posts: 202

Quite a few years ago a friend was out at a payphone at about 11pm. A car pulled up and 2 guys tried to abduct her. luckily she was strong enough to fight back but they got away.

mmmmm.......my first floor apartment was broken into and they emptied ever single envelop that I had with teaching games looking for money. Luckily they didn't get anything but I basically had to throw out all the games as the sorting was too difficult.

An office I worked in was broken into 3 times over about 5 years. Each time for petty cash left on the premises.

If I searched my memory sure I could come up with more.