TOKYO, Oct 18 (AFP) - Armed thieves stole 4.8 million dollars in cash from
a shipping firm in the second biggest robbery ever in Japan, police said
Monday.
Four to five masked men Sunday evening rushed into an office of Tobu
Transportation Co. in Tochigi Prefecture, 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of
Tokyo, and threatened two workers with guns and stunguns, police said.
The men took the key to a vault and tied the workers with tape before
rushing off with the cash, police said.
Initially, police believed the robbers took about 20 million yen (183,000
dollars). But further investigation revealed that 524 million yen (4.8 million
dollars) was stolen, police said.
It was the second biggest amount of money stolen in the country, following
a 1994 bank heist in Kobe in western Japan where 540 million yen was taken.
Police said foreigners appeared to be among the robbers in the latest case
as some of them spoke broken Japanese. An investigation was underway.
hih/sct/rcw