Ever hear a crime report and think, “Let him cook”? That’s my reaction upon hearing about a man who catfished other men online. However, he insists his intentions were noble.
Police say that Shimada Jin, an unemployed 29-year-old resident of Tokyo’s Ikebukuro, posed as a high school girl on a dating app. He reportedly waited for a man in his 20s at a pre-arranged spot for a meet.
Once there, Shimada reportedly told the man, “You shouldn’t molest minors.” He then allegedly asked the man, “How much sincerity can you show me? The market rate’s 3 million yen [about $19.2K USD].”
Shimada, however, denies the charges. “I didn’t say anything about money,” he maintains. “My goal was to make him aware of what he was doing.”
Sadly, Shimada’s tale of heroism doesn’t seem to hold water. He was busted when the 29-year-old “victim” asked his relatives for money and they became suspicious.
Shimada was likely counting on his victims not telling anyone because what they were doing was itself illegal (and worse). Sadly, he didn’t count on his victims being not just pedophiles, but broke pedophiles.
Again, though, maybe we should just let the man cook.
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