Photo/Illutration The robbery scene in Tokyo’s Ginza district on May 8 recorded and posted on Twitter (Provided by a reader)

In Kotaro Isaka’s “Yoki na Gyangu ga Chikyu wo Mawasu” (A cheerful gang turns the earth), nobody is hurt when a team of three men and a woman make off with 40 million yen ($295,000) in a bank heist that takes five minutes.

Each member is a genius in their own way: One member can always spot a lie and another is a master pickpocket; yet another is an orator of inimitable eloquence; and the team’s sole female member has a body clock that ticks with extraordinary precision.

The pooling of their special gifts ensures the successful execution of their intricate, high-stakes escapade.

Author Isaka has written several heist novels. I would love to learn his take on the May 8 robbery at a luxury watch shop in Tokyo’s Ginza district.

I imagine him giving the thumbs-down to every aspect of its execution. For starters, it was late afternoon when it was still light; the perpetrators wore white masks, and much of their escape route lay--of all places--in the vicinity of the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters.

While the robbery was in progress, curious passers-by snapped photos on their smartphones from the street. The robbers dashed out of the store after two minutes, although they apparently believed they could still hang around for another 30. And once they got into their large getaway car, they kept hitting all sorts of objects along the way, until they hit a dead-end. There, they abandoned the vehicle and fled into an apartment complex.

All those scenes were captured on video, including the part where the perpetrators were on a balcony of the apartment complex being persuaded by police officers to surrender.

Four individuals were arrested on suspicion of breaking and entering. Police apparently confiscated everything that was stolen, which means the gang totally botched the job.

This incredibly shoddy outcome was attributed to the immaturity of the suspects, all of whom are teenagers.

However, I am not sure if everything is as simple as it appears.

Precisely because the heist was so clumsily executed, I cannot help wondering if there was a “mastermind” behind it, and if so, how far this individual’s instructions went or how much leeway the teenagers were given in the actual execution of the plans.

What I mean is, did someone test those inexperienced teens as readily disposable “pawns” if they proved incompetent?

In Isaka’s story, the four-member team is double-crossed and the loot ends up in the hands of a criminal group, whose leader is a former yakuza and loan shark and has enough “goods” on every member to ruthlessly exploit their weakness as needed.

Could reality imitate fiction? I would dearly love to know the entire truth behind the May 8 robbery.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 13

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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