The watch was returned through a courier service along with a short apology note carrying just one word: “Sorry”.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the incident took place when a man entered a luxury watch shop in the Japanese capital pretending to be a customer. He asked to see an expensive watch made by Swiss brand Audemars Piguet and tried it on his wrist.
However, instead of returning the watch, the man ran out of the shop and escaped.
Two employees were present at the time of the theft, but no one was injured. The stolen watch was valued at approximately $290,000, equivalent to around PKR 80.2 million.
Stolen Watch Returned With Apology Note
The incident took an unexpected turn a few days later when the shop received a parcel through a courier service. The package had been sent from Aichi Prefecture and contained the stolen watch along with a brief apology note.
The note simply read “Sorry”.
According to Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper and local media reports citing unnamed investigative sources, the shop confirmed the watch was the same one stolen earlier after checking its serial number.
The shop's management declined to comment on the incident when contacted by AFP.
Tokyo police are still searching for the suspected thief in connection with the theft.
Previous Luxury Watch Theft at Same Shopping Complex
The same shopping complex had also witnessed another major watch theft in August.
In that incident, four luxury watches worth a total of 200 million yen, or around $1.3 million, were stolen from another shop.
The latest incident has drawn attention because the stolen watch was returned days later with an apology note, although police are still looking for the person suspected of taking it.
