A Japanese sixth grader bullied a classmate into giving him more than 1 million over several years so he and his friends could buy video games, fishing gear and snacks, an official said Tuesday.
The 11-year-old student at a public school in western Tokyo had been squeezing cash out of his classmate since they were in the third grade, said Shigeru Sakurai, a member of the Kiyose Board of Education overseeing the boys' school.
The parents of the 11-year-old victim grew suspicious after noticing a large sum of money had been withdrawn from a bank account they seldom used, Sakurai said.
He said he didn't know how much was withdrawn from the account. The national Asahi newspaper reported that the parents saw footage from the bank's security camera that showed their son and the group using an automated teller machine to withdraw money amounting to a total of 950,000 from their account.
The parents then contacted the police.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said they hadn't announced any information on the case and couldn't comment.
The victim had also been bullied in other ways, such as having his sports clothes and lunch bag thrown into the garbage, while other students forced him to do their homework.