Around 900 luxury watches worth almost US$13 million are missing in Japan after a site renting them out folded and its owner fled to Dubai. The owners of the Rolexes and other pricey timepieces earned monthly deposit fees by loaning them to Osaka-based Toke Match, which would then rent them to customers. Neo Reverse, the company that operated Toke Match, announced on Jan 31 the termination of its service and promised it would return all watches. However, the owners of around 900 watches worth ¥1.9 billion have not been reunited with their property. Some of the watches have even been spotted on an online auction site, prompting owners to file dozens of complaints to police around Japan. Tokyo police have obtained an arrest warrant for Toke Match’s owner Takazumi Kominato, 42, on suspicion of embezzlement of a Rolex watch. He is suspected of selling the Rolex he loaned from an owner to a second-hand dealer for ¥650,000 in January. Kominato flew out of Japan in late February for Dubai, and police plan to put him on the international wanted list. [ebecd1a1]
In a separate incident, a watch owned by Theodore Roosevelt has been recovered decades after it was stolen from a museum display in 1987. Roosevelt was given the watch in 1898, and it resurfaced at an auction house last year. The watch has now been returned to the National Park Service after a long journey. [967e4a9d]
Federal authorities have charged two men, Jamer Mauricio Sepulveda Salazar and Jesus Eduardo Padron Rojas, with stealing a US$1 million Patek Philippe watch at gunpoint from a man at a Beverly Hills restaurant. The suspects are part of a 'crime tourism' ring and belong to a South American Theft Group. They were apprehended three days later while driving a different vehicle that had been linked to a previous armed robbery. The theft is part of a spate of watch thefts in New York City, some of which involve individuals placing men in chokeholds to steal their watches. If convicted, Sepulveda faces a maximum sentence of life in federal prison, while Padron faces up to 20 years. Beverly Hills has seen previous high-profile watch thefts, including a robbery in 2022 where shots were fired and a diner was wounded.