Japanese police recently arrested a group of unlikely criminals, three grandpas in their late sixties, seventies, and eighties accused of breaking into at least two homes and suspected of ten other burglaries.

Hideo Umino, 88, Hidemi Matsuda, 70, and Kenichi Watanabe, 69 allegedly met behind bars and decided to team up after being released in order to commit crimes more efficiently. The trio, dubbed “G3S” by police (homophonous for ‘grandpas’ in Japanese), stand accused of breaking into an empty house in Sapporo, the main city on the island of Hokkaido in May and stealing 200 yen ($1.3) and three bottles of whisky worth about 10,000 yen ($65). the following month, they allegedly robbed another empty house and stole jewelry worth approximately one million yen (US$6,400). Police is currently investigating the group’s involvement in 10 other burglaries in the cities of Sapporo and Ebetsu.

Photo: zhang Kaiyv/Unsplash

At an age when most people are busy enjoying their retirement or taking care of their ailing bodies, G3S were allegedly planning robberies. According to a police statement, the three ex-cons had plotted to work together behind bars, setting clear and precise roles for themselves. 88-year-old Hideo Umino committed the burglaries, while Matsuda was the getaway driver, and Watanabe was responsible for selling the stolen goods.

Police began their investigation after the owner of one of the burgled houses notified them about stolen property. After checking surveillance footage and tracing the stolen goods, they were shocked to link the crimes to the three old-timers who reportedly needed to be physically supported by police officers during their arrest. When interrogated about their crimes, the three elderly criminals said they committed them “to make a living”.

Interstingly, just earlier this year, we wrote about a very similar gang of elderly criminals in Italy who carried out a series of armed robberies before being caught. Their leaders were seasoned criminals in their lates 60s and 70s.

While burglars in their 70s and 80s may not be the norm, with Japanese society aging at a very rapid pace, it’s no wonder that the crime rate among the country’s elderly has been rising in recent years.