KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police have arrested a 30-year-old man who while intoxicated crashed a taxi after he stole it in the town of Samukawa last week, reports TBS News (May 3).
Yuhei Nakabara, a company employee living in Hiratsuka City, denies the allegations. “Such a thing did not happen,” the suspect was quoted by police.
The incident took place at just past midnight on May 3. After Nakabara, who had been out drinking, paid the fare to the 57-year-old male driver on a road in Samukawa, he did not leave the seat.
After the driver asked what he was doing, Nakabara lunged at him, grabbing him around the throat. Nakabara then jumped into the driver’s seat of the cab and sped off.
About three kilometers from where the theft took place, the cab came to a halt after Nakabara crashed it into the fence of a cemetery.
The driver suffered light injuries in the incident, police said.
