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Sugar, sugar: Tokyo cops nab serial burglar with sweet tooth

Yasuhiro Wakashima
Yasuhiro Wakashima

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 51-year-old man suspected in a series of burglaries of offices in which he consumed ice cream and other sweets as he pilfered cash, reports TBS News (Mar. 22).

Police suspect Yasuhiro Wakashima, a resident of Wajima City, Ishikawa prefecture is behind more than 40 burglaries in Tokyo and Ishikawa since August of 2013 in which 5.5 million yen in cash and other items were stolen.

In 15 of those cases, the suspect ate more than 250 desserts, including, chocolate, ice cream and pudding, inside the premises. On August 8, 2016, he used a crowbar to pry open a door to trespass into a tax office in Musashino City, Tokyo and take an ice cream from a freezer.

Wakashima, who has been charged with theft, admits to the allegations. But he told police that he “did not recall” whether he ate sweet treats during the crime spree.

Prior to Wakashima’s arrest, examination of security camera footage led investigators to believe that the same person was behind the crimes. Investigators had dubbed the suspect “sugar.”

In the Musashino case, a bloodstain was found at the crime scene. The results of a DNA analysis of the blood proved to a match for Wakashima, according to Nikkan Sports (Mar. 22).