TOKYO – Tokyo Metropolitan Police this week arrested a 79-year-old man, known to investigators by the street name “Ticket Machine Hiro,” for allegedly stealing a wallet from a commuter at JR Tokyo Station.
According to Zakzak (Aug. 20), Kimitoshi Hirose is just the latest elderly thief to be apprehended by the capital’s finest over the past few decades — and even centuries.
Hirose, whose address and occupation are unknown, was caught red-handed on the morning of August 17 near the Tokaido Shinkansen transfer gates. According to police, Hirose targeted a 23-year-old man from Iwakuni City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, who was operating a ticket machine.
Standing next to his victim, Hirose allegedly used his own bag to cleverly conceal his hands while swiftly swiping the man’s wallet, which had been placed nearby. The wallet contained approximately 68,000 yen in cash and eight items, including a driver’s license.
Undercover investigators who were already monitoring Hirose witnessed the entire crime and apprehended him on the spot as he attempted to flee. Upon his arrest, Hirose admitted to the allegations, telling police, “I stole because I am struggling to make a living.”
Hirose has been on the police radar for about a decade due to a history of similar thefts, earning him the moniker “Ticket Machine Hiro” (Kenbai no Hiro) among detectives. Police are now investigating his potential involvement in a string of similar baggage thefts reported near ticket machines at Tokyo and Shinagawa stations since late July.
Lineage of elderly thieves
Hirose is part of a specialized lineage of elderly, lone-wolf pickpockets in Japan, many of whom have operated for decades.
Previous high-profile arrests include an 81-year-old man dubbed “Back-Pocket Grandpa Ume,” who was nabbed in 2010. Ume boasted a 60-year criminal career with 20 arrests, specializing in lifting wallets from men’s back pockets in Ueno’s crowded Ameyoko shopping street.
Another legendary underworld figure was “Depachika Grandma Sato,” a 79-year-old woman arrested in 2011. With 23 arrests over a 60-year career, she was notorious for making a beeline from prison straight to department store basement food halls (depachika) near JR Kichijoji Station to target distracted shoppers.
Rise of foreign gangs
While aging veterans like Hirose rely on traditional sleight of hand, police warn that modern pickpocketing is increasingly dominated by highly organized foreign gangs utilizing a “division of labor.” These teams of three or four strictly divide roles into lookouts, distractors, executioners, and receivers.
Their tactics are aggressive and varied. Some utilize the “spill trick,” where they fake cleaning a stain on the victim’s clothes, or use fake petition boards to block a target’s line of sight. In entertainment districts, the “dance trick” is rampant, where thieves feign intimacy and pretend to drunkenly dance with targets to lift their valuables.
In transit hubs, gangs orchestrate sudden stops at subway boarding gates to create a bottleneck, or execute “hit-and-run” snatches just as carriage doors close. Stolen goods are instantly passed to an accomplice, ensuring the primary thief holds no evidence even if caught.
The cat-and-mouse game between authorities and thieves with colorful monikers is deeply ingrained in Japanese history. Even during the Edo Period (1603–1868), authorities were plagued by legendary thieves like Nezumi Kozo Jirokichi, who silently infiltrated heavily guarded samurai estates, and “Fleet-footed Shichibei,” who used immense speed and local knowledge to vanish into the darkness—proving that while the tactics evolve, the battle against the criminal underworld remains the same.
