SHIGA (TR) – A brazen thief who stripped the wheels off a vehicle at a dealership in Otsu City returned days later to finish the job, completely ignoring a handwritten note from the owner begging for the stolen parts back, reports Nippon News Network (Apr. 28).
Security camera footage from an amusement facility parking lot captured the initial pre-dawn theft on April 17. A light vehicle pulled up next to a white passenger car kept as inventory by Viva Motors. A figure dressed entirely in black emerged, jacked up the vehicle, and propped it up on concrete blocks they had brought to the scene.
In a mere six minutes, the suspect removed the tires, loaded them into their vehicle, and fled.
Hoping to appeal to the culprit’s conscience, dealership management taped a desperate handwritten plea to the targeted car’s window: “To Mr. Thief: Please return the tires and wheels. We are in trouble!!”
“I wrote it hoping that maybe they would just give them back,” said Daisuke Nunozawa, general manager of Viva Motors.
However, the appeal fell on deaf ears. Five days later, during the early morning hours, a similar light vehicle returned to the scene.
This time parking on the right side of the crippled car, the thief swiftly went to work. In a matter of minutes, the suspect removed the remaining tires, loaded them up, and drove off into the night.
“It’s just sad,” Nunozawa said of the repeated targeting. “They worked in a very practiced manner and did it in such a short amount of time, so it’s likely the work of a professional.”
Total financial damages are estimated to be between 350,000 and 500,000 yen. The owner has filed a damage report with local police, who are now reviewing the security footage to track down the suspect.
