TOKYO - Four snatch-and-grab incidents occurred in Kawaguchi City and Saitama City in a span of two hours on Monday, each involving a motorcyclist targeting female cyclists carrying bags in their front basket.
A woman approached a police box at around 2:30 PM in Kawaguchi City, claiming, "My bag was snatched while I was riding my bicycle."
The woman had her shoulder bag, containing approximately 30,000 yen in cash, stolen from her front basket as a motorcycle swooped past, fortunately not causing any injuries.
Approximately an hour and a half later, another incident occurred on a street in the adjacent city of Saitama. Thirty minutes later, another snatch-and-grab took place on a street in Kawaguchi City, followed by yet another incident on a Kawaguchi City street just ten minutes after that.
In all these cases, the victims were women, and the perpetrator, wearing a full-face helmet and riding a black scooter-like motorcycle, snatched bags from the front baskets of their bicycles.
The police are treating these four consecutive incidents that occurred within a two-hour span as a series of snatch-and-grab cases by the same suspect, given the similarities in their modus operandi.
Furthermore, in June, there were two similar snatch-and-grab incidents involving a black motorcycle in the vicinity of Kawaguchi City, and the police are investigating possible links between these cases.
