Kurumaya Ramen is a peace-loving chain restaurant in Eastern Japan where you can enjoy a nice Kimchi Miso Ramen and the staff appear to be dressed like Super Mario. However, on 27 August it was the scene of an armed robbery.
Luckily in this day and age everyone is carrying a phone. As this potentially violent robber had his back to group of customers one of them pulled out their phone and did the first thing that came to mind in such an emergency.
“Armed Robbery now at Kurumaya Ramen!”
They tweeted it! The man seen brandishing a 20cm kitchen knife is believed to be 41-year-old Shoichi Ishii. As he ordered, he told the the 33-year-old cashier to “Get out all the money” and produced the knife.
In true laid-back Kurumaya Ramen fashion the 20 customers present reportedly continued eating their ramen as if nothing was happening. One patron thought that this would make an awesome Twitter post and popped up to take the shot, though since all phones in Japan are required by law to make a loud shutter sound when a photo is taken, we can’t say we’d be quite so willing to do the same unless it was covered by a very well timed cough.
Luckily, another customer dialed 110 and alerted the police. The authorities rushed to the scene and took Ishii down in the parking lot of the ramen shop, recovering the 250,000 yen (US$2,500) he stole. According to police, Ishii confessed saying: “I was out of work. I needed the money.”
Ironically, the very Kurumayama Ramen store he robbed was hiring at the time.
Source: My Game News Flash, Yomiuri Online (Japanese)