FUKUSHIMA (TR) – Fukushima Prefectural Police have arrested a 63-year-old homeless man for allegedly starting a fire inside a store restroom in Fukushima City.
According to TBS News (Sep. 8), Hideo Sato, an unemployed man of no fixed address, claimed he committed the act because he wanted to be sent to jail.
Sato is accused of using a lighter to set fire to a basket in the store’s toilet at around 3:00 p.m. on September 5. He was arrested on suspicion of property damage.
According to police, the store filed a damage report following the incident, but Sato later turned himself in at a local police station. Upon his arrest, he readily admitted to the allegations, reportedly telling investigators, “I wanted to go to prison.”
Authorities are now investigating Sato for other potential crimes. On the same day as the restroom incident, a separate fire broke out at a bicycle parking area of an apartment complex in the city, scorching a section of the building’s outer wall. Police are currently probing whether Sato was connected to that blaze as well.
