Foreign travelers arrested in Japan following smash-and-grab robbery in Tokyo shopping mall

Robbery took place at luxury wristwatch shopping hotspot for foreign tourists .

When international travelers come to Japan, they oftentimes want to cram a lot into their schedule.

It’s understandable.

Even with the weak yen making Japan travel more affordable than it’s been in decades, it’s still often a long flight to get here, and the logistics and scheduling involved mean you might not be back again for a while, so better see and do all you can, right? That said, we’d strongly advise against the itinerary of two men from Chile who, within the course of a week, landed in Japan, robbed a store in broad daylight, fled halfway across the country, and then got arrested.

On August 21, Chilean nationals Pinya Guzman and Mansano Quesada arrived in Japan on a flight from Sydney .

The next day, one of them made an account for an unmanned electric scooter rental network, and on the 23rd, rented a scooter in the vicinity of Tokyo’s Nakano Station , returning it just five minutes later, according to the system’s records.

The two men then went to Nakano Broadway , a shopping center just a short walk away.

Nakano Broadway is a very eclectic indoor mall, famous for its selection of subculture and specialty shops.

On the upper floors you’ll find stores filled with all sorts of classic anime merchandise and pop culture memorabilia, but the lower floors house a number of second-hand luxury watch stores .

In recent years, these watch shops have begun attracting a lot of attention from foreign tourists, thanks to their wide selections of rare and otherwise desirable models, the meticulous care Japanese owners take of their luxury goods prior to selling them, and the favorable-to-foreigners exchange rate that lets travelers scoop up high-quality pieces at much lower prices than they could in their home countries.

During their visit to Nakano Broadway on August 23, the 23-year-old Guzman and 33-year-old Quesada were seen spending time inside a first-floor watch shop called Time Walker , though they didn’t purchase anything, but they did spot some things that they wanted.

Two days later, on the 25th, Guzman and Quesada came back to the store, but instead of bringing cash to pay for the watches that had caught their eye, they brought a hammer .

With Quesada acting as lookout, Guzman waited for an opportunity, and at roughly 11:50 a.m., he shattered one of the store’s glass showcases.

The pair then snatched four watches, worth a combined total of roughly 203 million yen (US$1.28 million) , and fled, with one man making his escape on foot and the other hopping on a rented electric scooter.