The Okinawa Prefectural Police announced Monday the arrest and prosecution of three Japanese men who repeatedly entered and stole money and property from apartments of U.S. Military residents and “Y” number cars in six municipalities in the middle and northern part of Okinawa main island.

Reportedly, the three targeted the apartments of the U.S. Military residents’ because they “thought that those houses are more likely to be unlocked than to local residents’ apartments.”

The three arrested men are Sho Okudaira, a 23-year-old construction worker from Uruma, Sho Ikehara, a 23-year-old construction worker from Okinawa City, a high school student from Chatan Town who was 19 when the thefts occurred.

The men were arrested in September on suspicion of breaking into a house of a U.S. Military member Uruma City and stealing a wallet containing ¥5,000 in cash, in the night between May 29 and 30.

During the questioning, the three men confessed their involvement in other crimes. Police suspect that they had been involved in 40 burglaries that were reported to police, and stolen a total of ¥2.09 million.

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