Japanese 'Raincoat Man' arrested for stealing 360 women's raincoats in 13 years

Gulf Today Report

Japanese police arrested Yoshio Yoda, 51, in Osaka, Japan, for stealing 360 women's raincoats over a 13-year period.

Yoda was a newspaper deliveryman, a mysterious thief known locally as the man of women's coats, and the authorities had been trying to catch him for more than a decade.

Osaka police sources revealed that Yoda's modus operandi made him follow women riding bicycles, or simply check parked bicycles painted in female colors and search for "raincoat." After stealing he runs away.

A search of Yoda’s home turned up roughly 360 raincoats. Yoda told police that he has been doing this since “around 2009.”

Based on an estimated average cost of 3,500 yen (about $24) per coat, investigators estimated the total damage for Yoda's crimes at 1.12 million yen (about $7734).

During investigations, Yoda became known to authorities as the then-unidentified “Raincoat Man.”