74-YEAR-OLD ‘NINJA’
Police recognised the man as Mitsuaki Tanigawa, 74, who had a previous record of thefts.
They then started watching the aged crook and tried to trap him.
“Investigators watched him doddering out from his house like any other old man during daytime. He then went to an abandoned apartment room where he changed and waited until it got dark,” the official said.
“When he came out in the dark, he was all in black... He did not take ordinary streets, squeezing through tight spaces between houses and running on the tops of walls.”
As investigators were unable to pursue the agile thief to catch him in the act, they finally pounced when he went back to his hideout at 4am after robbing an electronics store.
Under arrest, Tanigawa said he “hated working and thought stealing was quicker”, according to the police official.
He has been charged for more than 254 break-ins for thefts totalling 30 million yen (RM1.1 million) over the past eight years.
He later told the police that he needed only 10 minutes to sneak into a house, stealing mainly cash from people as they slept.
“He’s a pro. He told us ‘I have confidence in my job’,” the police official said.
“If I were younger, I wouldn’t have been caught. I’ll quit now as I’m 74 and old enough,” the thief was quoted as saying. AFP