Police officers are people you would turn to in times of trouble, but this 29-year-old Ehime prefectural police officer, whose duties mainly involve investigating theft, was arrested Thursday for allegedly snatching a purse from a woman in the city of Okayama in Okayama Prefecture.
Naofumi Nomura, a police sergeant, is suspected of snatching a purse that contained about 10,000 yen in cash from a 75-year-old woman around 7:50 p.m. Thursday. Nomura has been dealing with robbery and theft cases, including purse snatching, for over three years at Matsuyama Minami Police Station. It was revealed that Nomura was having financial difficulties and had about 2.5 million yen in loans.
Nomura fled on foot after taking the purse, but two high school students, aged 17 and 15, heard the woman’s cries and chased after Nomura by bicycle for some 250 meters before overpowering him.
When boys were asked by reporters what they thought of this incident, one replied:
I cannot believe that a policeman who is supposed to arrest people has been arrested
The other boy said
I thought this could be the end of the world
Source: JapanToday
I guess the police department just aren’t that strict about hiring officers anymore. Now they are okay with letting drunk drivers and thieves into the force. LOL
Everyday I read these stories and think “Okay this is probably the last time I’ll hear about anymore police screw ups in Japan for a while.” But low and behold, every week there seems to be another story of a Police doing something wrong in Japan. It must be easy to become a cop in Japan.