Two junior high school students were suddenly hit on the head with a hammer… Two junior high school students robbed a 300,000 yen necklace.

When I heard a loud clang and turned around to see what was going on, I found that the show window of the store had been broken open. Two men were trying to take the merchandise by sticking their arms inside. When our eyes met, it was obvious that they were young boys.

A 62-year-old man who runs a jewelry store in Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, recalled that his store was robbed shortly before 6 p.m. on January 24, just before closing time, when two men broke the glass with a hammer, took a necklace worth about 300,000 yen on display, and fled.

Ms. A continued, “One of them was wearing an orange down jacket.

One was wearing an orange down jacket and the other was wearing a black outfit with a hood. I shouted, ‘What the hell are you guys doing? One of them ran away, and the other one struggled with me.

The head was bleeding uncontrollably. ……

The attacker struck Mr. A in the side of the head with a hammer he was carrying.

He hit me suddenly, and my glasses burst off and I fell forward. I must have been running on adrenaline. I still got up and chased after the man, but I lost him. When I returned to the store, my heart rate increased and I went to ……. I could not stop bleeding from my head, so I called 110 and the police officer who arrived called an ambulance. The diagnosis at the hospital was a total recovery of 10 days” (Mr. A).

Based on security camera footage, two men immediately emerged as the culprits in the investigation. About four hours after the incident, police officers on emergency deployment found the men in the city. They made an emergency arrest. The suspects were 14-year-old boys attending a local junior high school who were arrested on suspicion of robbery.

The boys admitted to the police that they had committed the crime. ‘I wanted to steal jewelry with my friends,’ they said. As for injuring the shopkeeper, they stated that he was hit somewhere in the body when he ran away while swinging a hammer,'” said a reporter from a national newspaper.

Mr. A cannot hide his surprise when he learned that the person arrested was a 14-year-old junior high school student.

He said, “It has been about 60 years since our company was founded, but this is the first time we have been involved in a robbery and assault case. I was shocked to learn that the culprit was a 14-year-old boy. Even if he stole the necklace for cash, it is not easy for a minor to do so because of the need for identification.

I am worried that there is an adult in the background who is directing him. I wonder if they are even allowing juveniles to commit heinous crimes. There will be a lot of robberies by “black market” workers all over the country now. I am worried that there will be more copycat crimes.”

For now, the Hiroshima Prefectural Police do not believe there is any connection between the “black market job” robbery crimes that have been occurring in various areas and this juvenile case. However, the police are investigating the possibility that the boys may have taken a cue from “black market job” crimes, as their targeting of a time when the store was about to close suggests a premeditated plan.