The Metropolitan Police Department arrested a 57-year-old man on Tuesday for attempting to rob Mizuho Bank’s Kameido branch in Tokyo with what appeared to be a gun.
Kazuto Inaba, a resident of Tokyo’s Edogawa Ward, was arrested red-handed shortly after noon and has already confessed to the crime, citing financial difficulties. There were other customers at the branch but no one was injured.
"I was paying off my debts by borrowing money in advance from my salary, but it wasn’t working, so I robbed the bank,” Inaba was quoted as saying by police.
Someone who was present at the branch, located near the JR Kameido Station, called the police after Inaba threatened a male desk clerk in his 60s with a gun-like object, telling him to "get me ¥500 million.”
Inaba told police that it was an air gun. Investigators are currently in the process of ascertaining the veracity of his claim.
A man in his 50s who was near the scene reported seeing police cars arriving one after another and police officers with batons entering the branch shortly after.
He then saw a man, believed to be the suspect, being taken out of the branch by the police officers and put into a car.