MIYAGI (TR) – A 43-year-old unemployed man accused of making off with a bag containing 22 million yen admitted to the charges in court this week, claiming he took the cash shortly after a doctor told him he only had months to live, reports Kahoku Shimpo (Oct. 19).
During his first hearing at the Sendai District Court on Monday, the man from Higashimatsushima City pleaded guilty to the embezzlement of lost property.
According to questioning during the trial, the defendant had just left a hospital in Sendai City prior to finding the cash. He had received the devastating news that his cancer, which he believed to be fully cured, had returned. His doctor gave him a life expectancy of just two to three months.
“I became desperate,” the man told the court.
While wandering in a daze near JR Sendai Station around noon on March 5, he spotted a bag resting on a street in Aoba Ward. The bag contained the sales of a local game center and had been dropped just minutes earlier by a security company employee during transport.
“I walked past it once, but I was curious about the contents and turned back,” the defendant said.
He purchased a box cutter and retreated to a nearby public restroom to slice the bag open. Upon discovering the massive amount of cash inside, he told the court he thought, “It’s a gift from God.”
In the four and a half months leading up to his arrest, the man blew through approximately 18 million yen, spending the windfall on medical treatment and overseas travel.
In their closing statements, prosecutors condemned his actions as “extremely selfish” and sought a one-year prison term. Meanwhile, the defense argued for a suspended sentence, telling the court, “It is not entirely impossible to understand how the defendant felt.”
A ruling is scheduled to be handed down on November 6.