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A $290,000 Watch Vanished From a Tokyo Shop. Three Days Later It Came Back With a ‘Sorry’ Note

Illustration of a generic steel luxury watch rising from an open courier box beside a handwritten note reading Sorry, against a neon city skyline at night

A man reportedly walked out of a Tokyo watch shop wearing a timepiece worth about ¥46 million (roughly $290,000). Three days later the watch came back by courier, along with a handwritten note that apologized. Police are still looking for him, and the story has spread quickly on social media.

What happened at Nakano Broadway

Jiji Press, as published by The Japan Times, reports that the theft happened around 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29, at a luxury watch shop on the third floor of Nakano Broadway, a well-known shopping complex in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward. A man asked to try on an Audemars Piguet watch and then ran off with it. Two employees were in the store and neither was hurt.

Kyodo News says the man posed as a customer, spent about eight minutes in the shop and fled “with the watch still on his left wrist.” The Seoul Economic Daily, citing Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun, identified the model as a Royal Oak.

A parcel, a serial number and a note

On the morning of Sunday, Nov. 1, a courier delivered a package to the shop. According to The Japan Times/Jiji, staff checked the serial number and confirmed it was the stolen watch. Kyodo reported that no significant damage was found.

Reports say the parcel was sent from Aichi Prefecture in central Japan and included a handwritten apology. Japanese broadcaster FNN reported that the note said, in essence, “sorry.” Police believe the sender’s name and address on the package are false, and the Seoul Economic Daily, citing the Yomiuri, says investigators are trying to establish whether the sender and the thief are the same person.

How police say he got away

NHK World reports that security camera images and other clues suggest the man left by taxi and then train, and reached Tokyo Station about an hour after the theft. Police believe he then boarded a westbound Shinkansen bullet train. NHK says the footage shows a man in black clothing and a hat running down an escalator on the first basement floor.

Getting the watch back does not end the case. AFP, as carried by CNA, cites the Asahi Shimbun as saying Tokyo police are still searching for the man on suspicion of theft. The shop declined to comment to AFP.

Not the first theft in the building this year

Nakano Broadway has already had a high-profile watch theft this year. The Japan Times/Jiji reports that in August, four watches worth a combined ¥200 million or so were stolen from a shop on the building’s first floor, and two Chilean nationals were later arrested and indicted. The Seoul Economic Daily, citing the Yomiuri, says that in the August case two men broke a display case with a hammer in about 10 seconds and were arrested in Osaka two days later.

According to the same Yomiuri-based report, Tokyo police gave Nakano Broadway stores crime-prevention guidance in mid-September. The advice included greeting visitors, showing replicas or photos instead of real pieces, and fitting shatter-resistant film.

Why it matters

Stolen luxury goods are rarely returned, let alone with a note, which is why the case caught on. It also shows a common risk for high-end retailers: “try-on” thefts, where someone posing as a buyer leaves with the item. Japanese stores in busy collector hubs like Nakano Broadway now face pressure to tighten in-store security after two incidents in a few months.

What’s next

Police are continuing the investigation, including tracing the parcel’s origin and checking whether the person who mailed it is the man seen in the shop. No arrest had been reported in the sources reviewed for this article. Returning the item does not by itself close a theft case, and any charging decision would rest with Japanese authorities. We’ll update this story if police announce an arrest or new details.