Four Japanese teens have been arrested in connection with an armed robbery at a Rolex store in Tokyo’s upscale Ginza district that was so brazen that onlookers initially mistook it for a movie shoot.
Three robbers, dressed in all black and wearing creepy white masks, barged into Quark Ginza 888, a store specializing in Rolex watches located at the heart of Tokyo’s busy shopping district, around 6:15 p.m. Monday, as seen on video filmed by a bystander, according to Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department.
The thieves threatened a store employee with knives while screaming threats, smashed display cases with crowbars and grabbed more than 100 luxury watches worth tens of thousands of dollars.
A man who witnessed the daytime heist said he initially thought that a film was being shot inside the watch store.
“The store is always popular, and this is a high-traffic area,” he told the news outlet The Asahi Shimbun. “At first, I thought they were shooting a drama.”
At one point, a woman tried to close the store’s door to stop the crooks from escaping, but she was pushed back by a crowbar-wielding suspect in a Guy Fawkes mask, before he and his cohorts made their escape in a white getaway minivan waiting outside.
Cops who responded to the scene and found the suspects’ van abounded on a street 15 minutes later.
A mask worn during the heist was found lying on the ground next to the vehicle.
Police were then able to track the bandits to a nearby apartment building, where the three suspected robbers and an accomplice, ranging in age from 16 to 19 years old, were arrested, Kyodo News reported.
Three of the teens, all from the city of Yokohoma, allegedly admitted to trespassing on the apartment building, but the fourth, a high school senior, denied wrongdoing.
They have not been identified by the authorities.
Investigators recovered a bag containing 30 luxury timepieces near the building.
They are working to determine whether a fifth suspect may have played a role in the robbery and remains at large.
No injuries have been reported as a result of the store heist.
