A thief in Japan has managed to turn a luxury watch robbery into something that sounds suspiciously like a customer service story. A man who stole an Audemars
Piguet watch worth around $290,000 (approximately ₹2.6 crore) from a Tokyo store returned the expensive timepiece by courier just three days later. And for good measure, he included a handwritten apology note. Apparently, even stealing can come with a return policy.
The bizarre incident happened on October 29 at a watch shop inside Tokyo’s Nakano Broadway shopping complex. According to Japanese media reports, the man entered the store, asked to try on the Swiss luxury watch and then ran away with it still strapped to his wrist. Two employees were present, but nobody was injured. Police launched a search for the suspect.
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A ₹2.6 crore watch arrives with a simple ‘sorry‘
On November 1, the shop received an unexpected parcel shipped from Japan’s Aichi Prefecture. Inside was the missing watch, accompanied by a handwritten note apologising for the theft.
Store employees checked the serial number and confirmed that it was the same watch.
The sender had written a name and address on the package, but investigators suspect those details were fake.
The watch was back. The thief, unfortunately for the police, was still missing.
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From India to Britain, apologetic thieves have made headlines before
Japan has some competition in the unusual crime department.
In 2018, a thief in Kerala returned stolen gold jewellery with an apology letter, requesting that the homeowner spare him from arrest.
In Britain, a stolen silver cigarette case was returned to a National Trust property in Northern Ireland in 2009, four years after it disappeared. The person responsible admitted feeling ashamed of the theft.
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Does saying sorry make the theft disappear?
Japanese police certainly do not think so. Investigators continue searching for the man, and returning the watch does not automatically erase the alleged offence.
Interestingly, Nakano Broadway witnessed another major watch theft in August, when four luxury watches worth around ¥200 million were stolen from a different shop.
