The great and powerful Japanese yakuza are apparently going through a rough patch, as two members of a criminal clan were caught shoplifting from a grocery store in Japan.
The pair was arrested at a mall in the city of Nagoya in central Japan last month for attempting to steal grocery items, police said on Tuesday, as cited by Mainichi and Asahi Shimbun newspapers.
The men, aged 52 and 59, were members of the recently formed Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi gang, the country’s third biggest crime group, according to police estimates from 2016.
The men were reportedly trying to steal 198 supermarket items worth 76,120 yen ($680) . They packed the food, which included a watermelon, rice, and eel, into a shopping basket and reportedly tried to leave without paying.
One of the men arrested said they had to steal “so that the group would survive, ” newspapers reported, citing police.
