Surrender was no prank

TOKYO: A Tokyo cop turned away one of the most wanted fugitives when he tried to surrender at police headquarters on New Year’s Eve after nearly 17 years on the run. The officer thought it was a bad joke when Makoto Hirata, a former member of a doomsday cult responsible for the 1995 nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway, showed up. Hirata went to another station, where he was arrested.