SHIGA (TR) – To be filed under: no fare.
Shiga Prefectural Police on Monday arrested a girl who declined to pay the taxi fare after traveling nearly 500 kilometers between Tokyo and Shiga Prefecture, reports the Yomiuri Shimbun (June 23).
At around 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, the girl, 18, of no known occupation, boarded the taxi at JR Tokyo Station in Tokyo. “To JR Kusatsu Station in Shiga Prefecture,” she told the 46-year-old male driver.
Five and a half hours later, at around 1:30 a.m. on Monday, the cab arrived at the destination. However, when asked to pay fare of 162,580 yen, the girl said, “I have no money.”
Officers from the Kusatsu Police Station arriving at the scene found the girl, a resident of Sagae City, Yamagata Prefecture, to be in possession of about 1,000 yen in cash.
Upon her arrest on suspicion of fraud, she admitted to the allegations. Police are now seeking a motive for the crime.
Don’t call Guinness
According to Google Maps, the distance between Tokyo and Kusatsu is about 468 kilometers. Though lengthy, such a journey is not even close to a record for such cases.
In 2016, a man failed to pay a driver after traveling about 850 kilometers between Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture and Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture. The fare that time totaled 270,000 yen.
