Photo/Illutration Police officers search a residential area in Yokohama’s Aoba Ward on Oct. 16 after a 75-year-old man was found dead at his home. (Naoko Kawamura)

YOKOHAMA—The bound and battered body of a 75-year-old man was found at his home here, a possible victim of a robbery ring that has terrorized households in the Kanto region since late August.

Investigators found Hiroharu Goto dead on the morning of Oct. 16. His hands and feet were tied with adhesive tape and his body was covered in bruises.

Kanagawa prefectural police went to the scene after a neighbor informed them that a window by the door at Goto’s home had remained open from the previous day.

Police suspect would-be robbers broke into the home through the window, part of which was broken.

Prints of different shoes were found inside. The living room and the entrance were ransacked, with drawers left pulled out.

Investigators have yet to confirm if anything was stolen. The cause of Goto’s death will be determined through an autopsy.

His wife was not home when his body was found.

The crime scene has similarities to other targets in the string of recent home invasions.

Early on Oct. 16, robbers broke into a home in Shiroi, Chiba Prefecture, assaulted a woman in her 70s and her daughter in her 40s, and stole about 200,000 yen ($1,300), police said.

The victims, who were alone at the home at the time, were ambushed while they were asleep. They were blindfolded, their hands were tied, and they were punched in the face and stomach.

The attackers broke the left pinky finger of the elderly woman.

The perpetrators were overheard talking with someone over a cellphone during the home invasion, investigators said.

On the morning of Oct. 17, a 72-year-old woman in Ichikawa, also in Chiba Prefecture, called police to say that someone had ransacked her home.

The woman, who returned from a night shift, found the door of her home unlocked and a window broken.

Police said an intruder or intruders tried to open a safe. Money was missing from a purse that was left inside the home.

Since August, at least seven robbery cases, including one involving plans for a break-in, have occurred in Tokyo and the neighboring prefectures of Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba.

According to the National Police Agency, cash and watches were stolen from homes and stores, and residents and others were injured in six of the seven cases.

More than 20 suspects have been arrested.

According to investigators, the perpetrators, who were strangers to each other, were recruited for shady “part-time jobs” through social media. Often, different individuals were used for each robbery case.

Police believe the same masterminds were likely behind the crimes because the suspects in some of the cases received instructions from the same account of a highly anonymous messaging app.

In addition to the seven robbery cases, two men broke into a home in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, on Oct. 9, attacked an elderly couple and stole about 9 million yen.

The wife, who is in her 70s, was seriously injured, including a broken rib.

Police are looking into possible connections with the seven cases.

(This article was compiled from reports by Arisa Inaba, Junji Murakami, Jun Sugie and Daichi Itakura.)

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