IBARAKI (TR) – Ibaraki Prefectural Police have arrested a male Vietnamese national over the alleged theft of more than 3,000 pears in Kasama City earlier this month.
According to police, Nguyen Xuan Thu is suspected of stealing approximately 3,200 unharvested pears, worth around 870,000 yen, from a pear orchard in Kasama City between 5:00 a.m. on the August 1 and 5:20 a.m. the following day.
Upon his arrest on suspicion of theft on August 28, Nguyen said, “I used social media to solicit those in the Vietnamese community who wanted fruit and sold [the pears] to them,” according to the Nippon News Network (Aug. 29).
The arrest is the second for Nguyen. On August 6, police first arrested him on suspicion of violating the Immigration and Refugee Control Act for not carrying a passport.
When police and others conducted a raid on the facility where Nguyen was living, officers found approximately 1,800 pears in the garage. Delivery slips and other items were also found in the garage.
