Homeless shoplifter lived in hotel for 2 years by cashing stolen CDs

An unemployed, homeless man who has been indicted recently for shoplifting was found to have lived at a business hotel for nearly two years with money he obtained by selling CDs and DVDs he shoplifted, police said Saturday. Tsutomu Shimizu, 44, who has no fixed address or job, shoplifted CDs and DVDs from bookstores in Saitama Prefecture since around January 2005 and sold them to secondhand goods dealers to obtain cash.
Shimizu lived in the business hotel in front of JR Kumagaya Station for 716 days until he was arrested Oct 25 this year, when he attempted to shoplift five CDs at a shop in the prefecture. He was found to have paid a total of 3.7 million yen for the accommodation, according to police. The man is believed to have stolen CDs and DVDs worth some 10 million yen, the police said.
The hotel did not find anything suspicious about Shimizu as he wore business suits when coming and going through the hotel, police added. The Kumagaya branch of the Saitama District Public Prosecutors Office has indicted Shimizu on charges of theft and attempted theft.