KYOTO (TR) – Kyoto Prefectural Police used a lost wallet to apprehend a 26-year-old man from Yamashina Ward who is alleged to have illegally obtained an identification card from a local government office.
The motive? To increase his chances of attending events featuring popular idol group AKB48, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Jan. 6).
Between December 18 and 20 of 2013, the unnamed man visited the Yamashina Ward office with documents, including a health insurance card from his brother, and copies of his own photograph in order to obtain multiple identification cards.
The ruse was perpetrated in order to attend meet-and-greet “handshake” events featuring members of AKB48. Tickets for the events are contained within limited-edition CDs for which a valid identification card with a photograph is needed for purchase.
“I wanted to obtain as many handshake tickets and CDs as possible,” the man is quoted by police. “I thought I could do both with this method.”
The plot came unraveled on July 14 of last year, when he lost his wallet. After it was turned over to a police box, officers discovered two forms of identification containing different names that used the same photograph.
On the same day, the man visited the police box in search of the lost item and admitted to the allegations.
“If a piece of identification is presented from that of a family member, it is difficult to see through a fraud,” a representative of the ward office is quoted by the Kyoto Shimbun (Jan. 6).
The man was sent to prosecutors on Wednesday on charges of document forgery and fraud.
