TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 55-year-old man who allegedly extorted 600,000 yen from a pedestrian in Akihabara by drawing his own blood to fake a broken dental implant, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Aug. 4).
Kazuya Takeda, a company employee from Nara City, has admitted to the extortion charge. Upon his arrest, he boasted of a decades-long scamming career, telling investigators, “I’ve done this about 100 times in places like Osaka and Aichi since 2002, raking in around 40 million yen.”
The arrest stems from an incident on June 13. At around 12:30 p.m. on a street outside JR Akihabara Station, Takeda aggressively confronted a man in his 50s.
“You bumped into me and broke my implant. Compensate me,” Takeda allegedly told the victim before extorting 600,000 yen in cash.
Security camera footage from the surrounding area revealed the bizarre lengths Takeda went to in order to sell the con. According to the Manseibashi Police Station, video shows Takeda forcefully jamming his fingers into his own mouth to draw blood, which he then smeared onto the victim’s belongings as “proof” of the collision.
The Manseibashi Station has received multiple reports of similar shakedowns in the area since April and is currently investigating Takeda’s connection to those crimes.
