Unfortunately, not technically being a theft won’t bring the victim’s car back.

Just as I was getting over thinking about how fraud was a strange thing, it turns out old-fashioned theft can be pretty tricky stuff as well. At first thought, it seems as straightforward as someone taking something that’s not theirs, but life has a way of coming up with complicated situations that can make even a theft not seem so black and white.

In May, a man living in Yoichi, Hokkaido Prefecture came home to find that his car had disappeared. Luckily, he had a security camera set up that caught the entire incident. During the day, a man and a woman drove up to his home in a small truck crane, often known as a “unic” in Japan. They rang the doorbell and spoke to the man’s father, who is in his 90s and reportedly suffering from dementia.

They told the father, “We’re here to pick up the car,” and handed him 10,000 yen (US$69). The father accepted the money and the pair got to work hoisting the car onto their truck. About 30 minutes later they had secured the car and drove away with it.

A news report showing some of the security camera footage

When the man saw this he was shocked and appalled that people would take advantage of his father like that and reported the theft of his car to the police. However, upon telling them what happened, the police responded that they couldn’t accept his story as a theft report based on the evidence at hand. Since the father had accepted money in exchange for the car, it could be seen as a legal transaction rather than theft.

Anyone hearing this story would probably agree that even if it isn’t technically theft, it certainly isn’t lawful and there should be something the police could have done. Online comments about the story concur.

“But if the father isn’t the owner of the car, that can’t be a legal sale.”
“Those two must have done their research to know about the old man’s condition.”
“The police should at least investigate where the car was taken so they can figure this out.”
“Something’s wrong with the law.”
“So, it’s legal to buy whatever you want for however much you want from someone with dementia?”
“If he has dementia, the sale is invalidated. The police should do their job.”
“I guess it’s more like fraud, so isn’t that enough for the police to do something?”

Unfortunately, if this was to be considered either theft or fraud, some form of intent would have to be established. Looking at the facts alone, it could be equally possible that the two people were offered a junker for 10,000 yen by someone else but they just made a mistake and picked up the wrong car. The father’s condition put him in no position to correct their mistake and off they went.

If that is the case, then they would likely give the car back right away and apologize if asked by the owner. Taking a situation like this to a more clear-cut extreme, it’d be like if you were a police officer and someone told you, “My brother stole my car,” your first instinct would probably be to at least ask if they tried to get it back before jumping right to arresting the brother for theft.

So, it would seem the police’s position is that the man first attempt to get the car back before this could be considered a theft. On the other hand, it certainly doesn’t seem fair that he should be tasked with playing detective in tracking down who these mysterious truck operators are. The police really ought to at least look into it a little bit as the potential that a crime had been committed exists.

That being said, maybe it is for the best that safeguards like this are in place to prevent the police from having carte blanche to investigate anyone they want on gut instincts alone, even if all of our guts are telling us something’s not right with this case.

Source: TV Asahi News, HTB News via Goo News, Hachima Kiko
Featured image: Pakutaso
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!