Japanese police arrest 81-year-old pickpocket

Some 81-year-olds might prefer to play with their grandchildren.

But Japanese police have accused an elderly man of a different past-time - picking pockets.

A man identifying himself as Hiroshi Abe, 81, was arrested yesterday in western Japan and accused of taking a wallet from a man’s pocket, police said.

“There aren’t many 80-year-old criminals. He’s the oldest to have been arrested this year in our precinct,” said a police official in Osaka.

The man, who had no fixed address and was carrying no identification papers, told police he had been arrested and imprisoned before, the official said.

Abe was arrested after allegedly stealing a wallet containing £30 (€42) from a man at a festival in Osaka.