YAMANASHI (TR) – Police here arrested a 59-year-old unemployed man suspected of being a serial shrine thief who earned the local nickname the “Pre-dawn Baseball Cap,” reports Nippon News Network (July 14).
According to investigative sources, Toshihiko Omata, 59, was taken into custody earlier this month for allegedly stealing coins from a shrine’s saisenbako (offertory box).
Omata has also been linked to a bizarre incident caught on security camera on July 6 at a separate shrine in the prefecture.
Footage showed a man wearing a hat approaching the offertory box under the cover of darkness. After scooping up coins resting on the wooden slats and checking the box’s drawer, the suspect suddenly stopped in his tracks. In a strange twist, he then tossed the seemingly stolen cash into the box, clapped his hands in prayer, and walked away.
Upon his arrest, Omata admitted to the allegations, including the incident captured on video. “I did it at several places to buy food,” he told investigators.
The shrine where the video was recorded has been plagued by offertory thefts, having been targeted roughly 60 times over the past five years. Because security cameras consistently captured the same figure wearing a baseball cap striking at the exact same hour, frustrated shrine officials dubbed the serial thief the “Pre-dawn Baseball Cap.”
Police are now carefully investigating the link between Omata and the five-year string of thefts associated with the moniker.
