I first noticed the guy next to me, he was an older man, who seemed to be waking closeish to a younger man. I noticed him look directly at my handbag, a bit odd, but I thought I had perhaps bumped into him.
My bag was fully zipped up (thankfully) but it made me a bit wary, which is why I noticed the younger man. There was a girl walking ahead of me with a more open style bag, I though I saw his hand reach toward the middle of her open bag when her own hand came down and her friend linked arms with her, thus stopping him by accident.
I may have been mistaken, perhaps I saw her own hand, but when we were a bit ahead I warned her just in case, saying that I may have been mistaken but please be careful. I’m very glad my own bag was zipped, since I frequently forget to do so. But a place like the crossing must be a pickpockets dream.
I didn’t bother going to the police, because I couldn’t really describe the men, and I may well have been mistaken.
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As much as people insist Japan is a safety country, pickpocketing and petty theft are extremely common. I’m pretty sure I got my wallet stolen that way pretty much straight after landing.
I was on a highway bus, middle of the day. Was about to fall asleep and the woman beside me, around her early20s i think, was reaching out toward my open bag beside me by the window. I saw her fingers reaching for me wallet. I woke up surprised, and she offered me tissue to wipe something wet or whatever. I just called her bitxh and she sat there quietly for the rest of the trip.
Crimes exist in Japan, though I hope these pickpocket incidents won’t become a norm. I love leaving my stuff and laptop at starbucks to go to the toilet or even the combini.
Ok……………………….?
A lot of old people thought they could survive on their nenkin income and assumed that their kids would take care of them. These people are often restoring to pretty crime like shoplifting and pickpocketing.
Its good to see these things sometimes to remind you shit does happen, and you still need to be on your guard.
I’ve played plenty of yakuza games to know how the seedy underbelly operates.
Do be wary of petty theft, I just had my laptop taken at a Tsutaya bookstore.
How many more mistakens happened thru out the day?
There’s got to be some way to tip police off: possible crime x at location y at these hours of the day.
I just had my new pair of crocks stollen.
Whoever did it was really sneaky. They switched them with an identical color pair (only older and smaller size) in the shoe box at the entrance to a school. I want to believe that I can still trust the parents of kids, so I assume that it must have been a stranger snuck into the school to get them.
What puzzles me is that whoever it was had to have an entire bag of old crocks with them in order to have the same color as mine. Either that, or they only bring the most common colors, so I have learned my lesson. From now on I will only buy the least common design crocks and just hope the thief does not have that same one in a smaller size.
I saw someone steal a bike in Namba, Osaka. I think most people know how to open combination locks, I learned it in highschool and can easily spot when someone is trying it.
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I saw this shady looking guy walking along a bike rack, just checking out the locks, he stopped, stooped briefly over a very nice new looking bike with a really fancy wicker basket on the front and back which really didn’t suit his street clothes style.
He kept looking round then mounted up and rode off. It was obvious to me he had just nicked it and it was outside a Starbucks, so I thought it must belong to someone in there. I went in and found a staff member but my Japanese was terrible and I was relying on Google Translate. The staff thought that my bike had been stolen and directed me to a police box. I went there to report the theft.
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The police used a phone interpreter so we could communicate and I told them what I saw. They were baffled that someone would steal a bike, even though many of my Japanese friends have complained of their bike being stolen at some point. They were also very suspicious of why I knew how to crack a combination lock…
They seemed to take it seriously, or at least entertained me, right up until I gave a description of the thief. They assumed he was homeless and asked what he was wearing. When I said he was well dressed in new looking street clothes they immediately stopped taking notes and changed tone. The officer seemed very putout and bluntly said “Why would a well dressed person steal something?”. I couldn’t answer and after that they thanked me for reporting and I left.
I doubt anything came of it. I drew a picture of the bike and details of the fancy woven baskets which seemed pretty unique. But it was amazing how quickly they changed once I gave them a description they didn’t like.
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