HOKKAIDO (TR) – Police here are searching for a man who impersonated a law enforcement officer and fled after a quick-thinking middle school student called his bluff, reports TV Asahi (Apr. 15).
The incident occurred amid a recent string of scams across Japan in which fake police officers attempt to extort on-the-spot cash “fines” from cyclists over bogus traffic violations.
At around 7:00 p.m. on Monday, a 13-year-old boy was riding his bicycle along a roadway in Muroran City. After the boy came to a proper temporary stop, a man suddenly approached him from behind.
“That’s a violation,” the man said, falsely claiming to be a police officer and attempting to reprimand the teenager for riding his bicycle on the street.
Unfortunately for the suspect, the teenager was well aware that under Japanese traffic laws, bicycles are classified as light vehicles and are generally required to use the roadway.
The boy immediately grew suspicious of the man’s appearance. Instead of a standard-issue police uniform, the phony officer was dressed in casual clothing, sporting a bucket hat, sunglasses, and a backpack.
When the teenager challenged the man and demanded to see his official police badge, the suspect panicked and fled the scene.
Police are currently tracking the whereabouts of the suspect on suspicion of attempted fraud and impersonating a police officer.
The case is not the first since the “blue ticket system” for bicycle violations went into effect nationwide this month.
On April 4, a man in Hiroshima Prefecture posing an authority figure swindled a teenage boy out of 2,000 yen using a similar scam. This week, two men posed as police in defrauding a cyclist out of 15,000 yen.
AloJapan.com