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Tokyo cops: Janitor robbed 100 homes to pay for sex

Hirotaka Sugawara
Hirotaka Sugawara

TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Tuesday announced the arrest of a 33-year-old male who robbed more than 100 residences in order to pay for visits to sex parlors, reports TV Asahi (Aug. 25).

On August 2, Hirotaka Sugawara, a janitor, used a screwdriver to remove a glass door of a residence in Adachi Ward. He subsequently entered the premises and stole 240,000 yen in cash and five Rolex wristwatches valued at 1.5 million yen.

Since February, the suspect is believed to have been behind more than 130 similar robberies in Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture in which the value of lost property totals 33 million yen.

“I used the money for fuzoku,” the suspect is quoted by police in referring to the commercial sex industry.

Sugawara used his father’s electric vehicle to commit the crimes. While ransacking the properties, the suspect left the front door ajar and ran water in the bathtub to make it seems as if the residents were at home, according to Nippon News Network (Aug. 25).