A series of recent crimes around Tokyo have involved part-time workers recruited on social media. The suspects are usually young people.
They were promised high pay for easy work, but instead found themselves committing acts of theft and even violence.
A house in Chiba Prefecture’s Ichikawa City was targeted on Thursday. A 72-year-old woman lives there with her daughter. The mother was out working at the time. Her daughter, who is in her 50s, was sleeping on the second floor. She was assaulted and then briefly abducted.
Another incident turned deadly. On Tuesday, a 75-year-old man was killed in Yokohama City. About 1,400 dollars in cash and a total of over 2,000 dollars’ worth of accessories were stolen from his house.
Police arrested a 22-year-old man on Saturday night on suspicion of the robbery and murder.
They say he admitted to the charges, and said he carried out the attack with two others. Police say the suspect told them he was looking for a part-time job to earn quick cash. He applied for a role he found in a social media post, which implied it involved legitimate work.
The suspect had lived with his grandparents and his father who is still struggling to understand how his son got involved.
Another 26-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the Chiba case. Police say his fingerprints were also found at the Yokohama crime scene. Authorities are trying to identify the group orchestrating the incidents.
They believe it recruits people through social media to carry out the crimes. It uses anonymous communication apps such as Telegram and Signal to communicate with the perpetrators.
Multiple suspects have told police that the person giving them instructions claimed to have their personal information. So they felt they had no choice but to follow orders and commit the robberies.
Pawnshops and houses of elderly residents are among targeted locations. But investigative sources say some affected homes did not fit any pattern, making it difficult to identify the group behind the crimes.