Japanese Man Held for Alleged Drunken Driving of Fake Police Car

Tokyo, May 21 (Jiji Press)–Tokyo police have arrested a 23-year-old man on suspicion of drunken driving of a vehicle modified to look like an unmarked police car. Ren Nakamura, a resident of the city of Toda, Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, has admitted to the allegations of dangerous driving resulting in injury, according to the Metropolitan Police Department’s traffic investigation division. He is suspected of driving the fake police car and crashing it into a power pole in Tokyo’s Nerima Ward around 1:20 a.m. on Dec. 21 last year although he was in a state where normal driving was difficult due to the influence of alcohol. His girlfriend, 22, who was in the passenger’s seat, suffered injuries taking three months to heal. The woman drove the fake police car to pick up Nakamura at the workplace of his part-time job in the Japanese capital’s Shinjuku Ward, where he was drinking, and he then drove the car himself. Nakamura drove about 10 kilometers, using a red flasher and sounding a siren of the fake police car, and committed 15 traffic violations, such as ignoring traffic lights and speeding, during the travel. Following the accident, police found more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his breath. The woman was sent to prosecutors on suspicion of violating the road traffic law. The MPD division also arrested Yoshito Mashimo, a 22-year-old company employee, also from Toda, on suspicion of violating the road transport vehicle law for his alleged involvement in the modification of the car. He admitted to the allegations against him, and police seized apparently fake pistols and handcuffs from his home as well as another fake police car. In voluntary questioning before his arrest, Mashimo told police that he learned the knowledge and skills necessary for vehicle modification on the internet and that “I like police vehicles the most.” He is an elementary and junior high school classmate of Nakamura. The MPD division is investigating Mashimo also on suspicion of modifying other vehicles. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]