OKINAWA CITY — Two American teenagers were in Okinawa police custody Wednesday on suspicion of stealing about $54 from a cab driver Sunday in Okinawa City.
The teens were described by an Okinawa prefectural police spokesman as a 16-year-old high school student who is the son of an Air Force servicemember and a 15-year-old high school dropout who is the son of a Marine.
The two teens allegedly ran away with a coin box containing 5,400 yen (about $54) as they exited the taxi at 10:45 p.m. Sunday in the Minami Tobaru district of Okinawa City, near Kadena Air Base’s Gate 5, the spokesman said.
Police officers responding to the 51-year-old cab driver’s call spotted the 16-year-old in the neighborhood and arrested him at 11:45 p.m. after the driver identified the boy, the spokesman said. The cabbie told officers he clearly remembered the boy because he had to reach into the back seat to wrestle for a bag the boy had grabbed from the front seat.
The student lives in an off-base home in Okinawa City with his family, the police spokesman said.
After an investigation in which military police assisted Okinawa officers, the 15-year-old boy, who had fled the scene, was identified and arrested at 10:40 p.m. Tuesday, the police spokesman said.
According to the police report, the boy was listed by the military as a runaway. His family lives off base.
Okinawa police would not say whether the two are suspects in the assault and robbery of a 55-year-old cabbie near Kadena Air Base’s Gate Two early Sunday.
In that attack, three foreigners, described as speaking English, fled with a coin box containing 8,000 yen (about $80) after one of them struck the cab driver from behind, knocking him to the ground.
“We can’t comment on a linkage at this time,” a police spokesman said. “Both cases are under intensive investigation.”
