Convenience Store Robber Fakes Foreign Accent In Attempt To Fool Police
If you’re going to rob a convenience store, “please give me some money” probably isn’t the most intimidating opening line. Yet that was allegedly the strategy used by a 32-year-old man in Gunma, who police say held a knife to a convenience-store manager and asked for money in deliberately broken Japanese. The suspect, 32-year-old Atsushi […] The post Convenience Store Robber Fakes Foreign Accent…
A man in his 30s attempted to rob a convenience store in Gunma by pretending to be a foreigner, speaking broken Japanese and demanding money. The plan backfired when the manager resisted, leading police to identify and apprehend the suspect, Atsushi Goto. Goto then confessed to faking a foreign accent to throw law enforcement off his trail.
The incident isn't an isolated case. Just a day earlier, another convenience store about 20 kilometers away in Isesaki was robbed of ¥30,000. Police are investigating if Goto was involved in that robbery as well, based on security footage and evidence collected during their investigation.
Interestingly, this strategy of pretending to be foreign isn't new. In 2021, a man in Aichi Prefecture claimed to be Vietnamese, wearing a ski cap, mask, and leather jacket while wielding a knife in a FamilyMart robbery. He reportedly asked the manager for money in broken English, a tactic that also failed to protect him from the law. Both incidents, separated by years and distance, share similar elements, suggesting a common belief among some criminals that sounding foreign could deter law enforcement.
Written by urgent.news from Tokyo Weekender's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
