"I Want to Try It On," He Said, Then Fled Wearing a 400-Million-Won Luxury Watch; It Returned by Courier with an Apology Note

Luxury Watch Stolen at Nakano Broadway in Japan
Returned to Store Three Days Later in a Package Sent from Aichi Prefecture
Police Investigating Sender's Identity and Whether They Were the Thief

A luxury watch worth 46 million yen (about 391 million won), which a man fled with on his wrist from a watch store in Tokyo, Japan, was returned by courier three days later with an apology note, drawing attention.

Man Poses as Customer, Flees Wearing Watch; Returns It by Courier Three Days Later

A luxury watch worth 46 million yen (about 391 million won), which a man fled with on his wrist from a watch shop in Tokyo, Japan, was returned by courier three days later along with an apology note, Japanese broadcaster ANN reported.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun on November 2, a Royal Oak watch by Audemars Piguet, stolen from a watch store in the Nakano Broadway shopping complex in Nakano Ward, Tokyo, on the morning of November 1, was delivered to the store by courier. The package also contained a handwritten note apologizing for the theft. The store confirmed by checking the serial number that it was the stolen watch, which reportedly showed no noticeable damage.

The watch went missing at around 7:45 p.m. on October 29. A man who entered the store on the building's third floor asked an employee if he could try on a watch, then put it on his left wrist and ran out of the store without taking it off. He had been in the store for about eight minutes. Footage from closed-circuit television (CCTV) obtained by Japan's ANN broadcaster showed a man dressed in black running down an escalator with a white circular object on his left wrist.

The package containing the watch was sent from Aichi Prefecture, and the sender's name was written on the outside. Police are investigating the sender's identity, while allowing for the possibility that the name is an alias. It has not yet been determined whether the person who sent the package was the same man who fled with the watch. Police are investigating the circumstances of the watch's return and searching for the man who fled.

Four Watches Stolen in 10 Seconds at Same Building Two Months Earlier

Audemars Piguet's "Royal Oak" watch, shown to help readers understand the article. Official website

Earlier, on August 25, four luxury watches worth 200 million yen (about 1.7 billion won) were stolen from another watch store on the first floor of Nakano Broadway. It took two men about 10 seconds to smash a display case with a hammer and grab the watches. The two men, both Chilean nationals, were arrested in Osaka two days later and charged with theft. According to Japan's Weekly Bunshun, one of them told police during questioning, "I came to Nakano after hearing about it from my daughter. Unlike Chile, security was very lax, so I thought I could steal something." In September, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department conducted a crime prevention inspection of the building.

Locals are growing uneasy over the series of luxury watch thefts. According to Japan News, an executive at a luxury goods store in Nakano Ward, in his 50s, said, "The employees at the store that was targeted looked very disheartened," adding, "It's upsetting that similar incidents keep happening in the neighborhood."

The same tactic of fleeing after trying on a watch has also been used in other countries. According to Hong Kong's The Standard, at around 12:37 p.m. on July 24, a man in his 40s posing as a customer at a watch store on the first floor of a shopping mall in Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong, asked to try on a rose gold Rolex and was handed the watch. As soon as he put it on his wrist, he fled through the main entrance. The watch was reportedly worth 152,000 Hong Kong dollars (about 26.2 million won).

A similar incident occurred during a secondhand transaction in Seoul in 2021. A man who met a seller through a secondhand trading platform said he wanted to try on a watch and put an Omega worth around 9 million won on his wrist. After talking for about three minutes, he grabbed the certificate of authenticity as well and fled, then immediately withdrew from the platform. He was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 300,000 won for theft and other charges.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.