HOKKAIDO (TR) – Hokkaido Prefectural Police have re-arrested an unemployed man accused of using a crowbar to smash open change machines and steal cash from local laundromats in Sapporo City, reports Nippon News Network (July 21).
Masahiro Yahara is accused of targeting Sapporo laundromats on two consecutive days in November of last year. Armed with a crowbar, the suspect allegedly pried open money exchange and prepaid card machines, making off with a total of approximately 300,000 yen in cash.
Security camera footage of one incident captured a man entering a shop and immediately wedging a crowbar into a prepaid card dispenser to extract the bills. He then moved to an adjacent change machine, forcefully ripping off its cover to steal the contents before fleeing the scene.
Yahara was already in police custody after being arrested and sent to prosecutors last month for a similar theft at a different laundromat.
Upon questioning for the latest string of robberies, Yahara fully admitted to the allegations, telling investigators, “There is no mistake in the facts.”
