Thief changes his mind about a $291K watch and returns it 3 days later with a handwritten apology

Most jewel thieves often make a quick getaway and are seldom seen unless caught by the police. But one man, about 180 centimeters tall and dressed in black with a camouflage-patterned cap, had other plans. On October 29, he bolted out of a Nakano Ward watchstop in Tokyo, with an Audemars Piguet clasped to his wrist. Three days later, the watch came back, undamaged and packaged in a courier from Aichi Prefecture, with a handwritten note, according to a November 2, 2026, report by Kyodo News.

Brazen daytime dash

The theft took place at around 7:45 in the evening on October 29. The Kamekicki watch store, tucked on the third floor of the Nakano Broadway shopping complex in Tokyo, encountered the thief as a customer. The customer was trying out a timepiece worth 46 million yen ($291,000), the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. After handing the watch back, he tried out the Audemars Piguet.

It was still fastened to his wrist when he walked to a mirror at the back of the store, pretending to sit down on a chair, and then made a beeline towards the entrance just before 8 o'clock. He “ran the wrong way down one of the complex’s escalators and fled east,” according to the description of the Yomiuri Shimbun. Within minutes, about 20 officers were hurriedly swarming the store. Later on, security cameras recorded him getting into a taxi outside and getting out after a short ride.

Strangest plot twist

Three days later, when the watch returned, its serial number matched that of the stolen item. The watch was entirely undamaged and intact, with the handwritten note that said, "I'm sorry." Although the parcel had a name and address written on it, the police believe that both are fake, per CBS News. 

Recurring watch thefts

This is not the only watch theft incident that has hit a Nakano Ward shop this year. In August, four luxury watches worth 200 million yen ($1.3 million) were stolen from another store in the same shopping complex, the Japan Times reported. Two Chilean nationals were arrested on suspicion. Police advised the store owners to display only replicas and use a special lining on display cases to make them difficult to break.

Mystery remains unsolved

In this case, nobody has been arrested, but detectives are investigating the paper trail, surveillance footage, and the parcel’s forensic clues to learn more about the strange customer, according to the Tokyo Reporter. The clues have indicated that the parcel might have been shipped from Aichi Prefecture in central Japan, hundreds of miles from Tokyo, and the thief is someone acting on behalf of another thief or gang.

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