Cosplayer arrested after Japanese internet sleuths track down bike thief

A cosplayer stole a discontinued race bike, leading to their arrest. Though they turned themself into the police, the owner of the bike refused to accept their apology.

On December 30, a cosplayer known online as ‘SakuraVictoria_’ stole a motorbike that was parked outside of a residential building in Japan. Unbeknownst to them, the bike belonged to X user ‘nyankoya85.’

After the motorbike was stolen, the owner’s wife posted the bike’s license plate number online, asking the internet to help find it for her husband.

The post quickly gained 14M views, leading one social media user to track it down the next day after the cosplayer shared a photo of the discontinued race bike online.

The cosplayer allegedly posted about wanting that specific bike for at least 15 years, adding how happy they were to own one finally.

However, internet users grew skeptical after the cosplayer shared a photo of the $7,000 Suzuki TL1000R being transported in a van.

Cosplayer apologizes to owner for stealing his motorbike

Once the owner and his wife were contacted, the couple immediately recognized it as theirs, as they had replaced the bike tires to alternative tires with specialized patterns.

With so much attention online, the 39-year-old cosplayer reportedly drove an hour to turn themselves into police on January 1 for stealing the bike, telling the owner, “Sorry.”

However, the owner refused to accept the cosplayer’s apology after he realized they had broken the steering lock on the bike. The owner also wanted to meet with them in person, but they declined to discuss the matter with him further.

After turning themself in, the cosplayer was arrested. In addition to facing potential legal charges, their social media accounts were locked and their posts have been hidden. However, it is unknown if the police are preventing the cosplayer from their socials or if they changed their own accessibility.