A group of men broke into the apartment of a jewelry dealer in Yokohama and made off with hundreds of jewelry pieces and some 1.55 million yen in cash Sunday afternoon, police said.
They quoted the 70-year-old dealer, who suffered a minor wound in the robbery, as claiming the jewels are worth up to 300 million yen in total.
The dealer said two men who were with him as he took the elevator of the apartment building suddenly pinioned him from behind just as he opened the door to his unit.
The men pushed the dealer inside the apartment, and were later joined by several other men. The robbers tied up the dealer and his 35-year-old daughter with adhesive tape, destroyed a safe and a jewelry case and escaped with the jewels and cash, the dealer told police. Police quoted the dealer as saying the robbers spoke what sounded like Chinese.