AICHI (TR) – Three packs of cigarettes, two prefectures, one arrest.
Aichi Prefectural Police on Thursday arrested a 52-year-old man over the robbery of a convenience store in Nishio City, an apprehension that took place in Toyama Prefecture the next day, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Aug. 23).
At around 9:40 a.m. on Tuesday, Takatoshi Shinmoto, of no known occupation, thrust a knife before a 40-year-old female employee at an outlet of Lawson. “Don’t make noise,” he threatened before fleeing the scene by car with three packs of cigarettes, according to the Nishio Police Station.
At around 3:30 p.m. the following day, Toyama Prefectural Police were tipped off about a man involved in a dispute at a toll booth on the Hokuriku Expressway at the Oyabe Interchange in Oyabe City.
Based on surveillance camera footage taken at the convenience store in Nishio, which is located about 250 kilometers away from Oyabe, police realized the man at the toll booth was also behind the robbery.
Officers from the Nishio Police Station later arrived in Toyama to arrest Shinmoto on suspicion of robbery.
