IBARAKI (TR) – Police here have arrested two unemployed men for allegedly stealing 200 kilograms of copper wire from an electrical construction company under the cover of darkness.
The capture was aided by the implementation of a GPS tracking device by the company, reports Nippon News Network (Apr. 14).
Hiroyuki Matsumoto, 61, and an unemployed accomplice, described as a longtime acquaintance, are accused of snatching five bundles of copper wire cable from the bed of a parked truck at a company facility in Koga City this past January.
The stolen materials were valued at approximately 150,000 yen, police said.
According to police, the duo drove to the scene in the dead of night, wearing ski masks to conceal their identities from security cameras.
However, the masked thieves were entirely unaware they were walking straight into a trap. Having suffered a series of similar thefts since last year, the frustrated company had taken matters into its own hands by secretly planting GPS tracking devices inside the cables.
When the materials went missing, the company immediately contacted authorities. The digital breadcrumbs led investigators directly to a metal scrap dealer in neighboring Tochigi Prefecture, where the men had already sold off the stolen goods, ultimately leading to their arrest.
Police have not disclosed whether the suspects have admitted to the charges. However, investigators suspect the pair is behind a massive regional crime spree, linking them to dozens of other copper wire thefts centered primarily around northeastern Saitama Prefecture.
