Restaurant Manager Caught Robbing His Own Restaurant

The food and beverage industry can be a tough one, but when an employee has had enough and decides to turn instead to a life of crime, it would behoove him to choose his targets carefully and not, say, attempt to rob his own employees and pass it off as a "training exercise."

According to Rocket News 24, a young restaurant manager in Japan was arrested this week for attempting to rob the very yakitori restaurant he managed. Restaurant employees say he burst into the back of the restaurant at around 1 a.m. just as they were closing for the night. He was wearing a mask and sunglasses, and he brandished a kitchen knife at the staff and demanded that they hand over all the money. He did not bother changing his voice, though, and the very employees he supervised every day just stood and gawked until one bewildered employee reportedly said, "Aren't you our manager?"

With his secret identity foiled, the manager reportedly took off his disguise and told the staff, "Watch out for robbers," as though the whole thing were a very ineffective training exercise. Then he just walked out, leaving the baffled staff to finish closing for the night.

The manager would probably have gotten away with the ruse, except the next day the manager called the police and actually reported the robbery.  He allegedly told investigators that two people had stolen approximately $2,600 from the restaurant. In no time, however, police discovered that the only person who had stolen from the restaurant was the manager himself. He'd reportedly embezzled about $500, and seemed to be using the fake robbery to cover it up. The manager has since been arrested on charge of attempted robbery and embezzlement.