Police have arrested a 18-year-old high school boy, a son of a Marine stationed on Okinawa on suspicion of a robbery and theft.

According to Okinawa police, the owner of a deli called the police emergency line reporting a young man looking like a foreigner had walked into the kitchen of his shop in Kawasaki, Uruma City, around 5:25 a.m. Friday. The man wielded what looked like pistol at the shop’s 66-year-old male owner, saying “Okane, okane! (Money, money!)” in broken Japanese. The owner then handed him \11,000 in cash. The robber said, “Arigato! (Thank you!),” and ran away. The “pistol” later tuned out to be a toy gun..

Police investigated the incident as a robbery and, about one hour after the incident, a police patrol driving in the vicinity of the Uruma City Office about two kilometers from the site of the robbery, spotted a man who immediately after seeing the patrol car ran away. However, the patrol found a toy gun at the site. Police then contacted the Military Police who agreed to cooperate in the investigation that led to the arrest of a18-year-old high school student who is a son of a U.S. Marine. The boy lives on Camp McTureous with his family.

Police are also investigating the boy on theft allegation because he had gone to the shop in a car he had stolen.

Kawasaki elementary school near the robbery site decided to cancel the extracurricular activities after receiving news of the robbery. They contacted parents of all 404 students to ask them to pick students up. Uruma Education Committee sent faxes to all public nursery, elementary, junior high and high schools advising attention. They also set up patrols in all areas.

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