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Thieves pull off ninja museum heist in Japan
A ninja museum in Japan was hit in a heist worthy of the ninja tradition for speed and stealth.
The Iga-rya Ninja Museum near Iga City had a safe swiped containing more than one million yen (about $9,500) with the thieves completing the job in just a few minutes, a museum official said.
"It was a three-minute job," the unnamed official said, even though the safe weighed about 150kg.
The money inside was from admission fees for about 1,000 visitors.
"It was planned, they must have scoped us out and singled us out," the official said.
The museum is located inside a forest making it an attractive target for thieves as it is hidden away from view.
The museum was unmanned at the time.
The heist took place just as the museum was gaining more visitors after a period of lockdown.
"People were just getting more comfortable with all the corona precautions we were taking. This is really terrible," he said.
Ige City is one of the main centres of the ninja tradition which dates back to the Middle Ages.
Ninjas were noted as ruthless assassins, notorious for deception, espionage and surprise attacks.
The ninja culture is still exceedingly popular and is an established part of the tourism industry.
Iga puts on a large ninja festival each year that attracts thousands of visitors.
Written by Ray Montgomery, Asia Pacific editor
TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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