For all the reasons elderly people could ever go viral on social media, this one takes the cake. Local news reports claimed that in Japan three elderly men, who have spent time in jail have been in the news for allegedly committing burglaries. The South China Morning Post said the trio, when arrested required assistance due to their advancing age. The cops reportedly gave them a code name G3S, which is homophonic to the word “grandpas” in Japanese.
The three accused- identified as Hideo Umino, 88, Hidemi Matsuda, 70, and Kenichi Watanabe, 69, met in prison, and hatched a plan to carry out burglary once they were released from jail, the report said.
Each of the three members had a specific job assigned to them, Investigators said that the eldest gang member was the one who stole the items, Matsuda was the driver, ready to escape and the youngest, Watanabe, was responsible for disposing off the stolen goods.
The group carried out a series of burglaries on the northern island of Hokkaido in Japan. In one instance they allegedly broke into an empty house in Sapporo and stole 200 yen (US$1.3) and three bottles of whisky costing 10,000 yen (US$65), the article stated.
In June, they stole 24 pieces of jewellery worth one million yen (US$6,400) from another empty house in the same district. The police said that investigations were being conducted to ascertain whether the same group is responsible for 10 other robberies in the area.
The article mentioned above further notes that crimes committed by people aged over 65 increased from 2.1 per cent in 1989 to 22 per cent in 2019. The rate of petty theft as well as repeat offences have gone up over the last three decades.
The trio have thus caught the public's imagination and have quickly gone viral on social media due to their daring robberies, considering their age group.
Published 26 July 2024, 14:08 IST