Shunichi Takahashi, center, receives a letter of thanks from Yasuo Ogata, chief of Tsurumi Police Station, left, in Osaka’s Tsurumi Ward, May 28, 2025. (Mainichi/Hayato Matsubara)
OSAKA — A man has been thanked by police here for preventing an elderly woman from being defrauded despite the would-be victim’s irritation at his attempts to intervene.
Osaka’s Tsurumi Police Station presented a letter of gratitude to Shunichi Takahashi, 54, a company worker living in the city’s Tsurumi Ward, for his quick-thinking intervention during the evening incident, which occurred in late April.
Takahashi was in the area around JR Hanaten Station when he noticed the woman in her 80s speaking loudly on the phone with a note in her hand near an ATM. He immediately thought, “Isn’t that fraud?”
Takahashi alerted police via the 110 emergency number, then approached the woman, asking, “Aren’t you being scammed?” She replied irritably, “I’m fine!” and followed instructions over the phone to move toward a convenience store. Takahashi continued to tail her.
Apparently irritated by Takahashi’s persistence, the woman told the presumed fraudster on the other end of the line, “I can’t complete the procedures because there’s a man here.”
Shunichi Takahashi describes the situation at the time, outside of the convenience store where he prevented an elderly woman from becoming victim of a fraud, in Osaka’s Tsurumi Ward, May 28, 2025. (Mainichi/Hayato Matsubara)
When the woman arrived at an ATM in a convenience store about 200 meters away, police officers also arrived. Possibly due to noticing the police presence, the person on the other end of the phone reportedly hung up.
It was revealed that a man claiming to be a municipal worker from Higashiosaka had been directing the woman, telling her there was a “medical expense refund” and instructing her to transfer money at the ATM. Even when confronted by officers, the woman apparently angrily insisted, “I’m talking to someone from the city hall!”
After receiving the letter of appreciation, Takahashi reflected, “She got angry at me, but if she had been scammed, I would have regretted it. I’m glad she wasn’t victimized.”
(Japanese original by Hayato Matsubara, Osaka City News Department)
AloJapan.com