Fifty-six ATM thefts have been reported in the three disaster-hit Tohoku prefectures since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, with the amount of money stolen totaling 684 million yen (S$10.5 million), according to the National Police Agency.

About 420 million yen (S$6.45 million) , or 60 per cent of the money, was stolen from within 20 kilometers of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Deserted in the wake of the disaster, ATMs in convenience stores and financial institutions in the area in particular have become targets for theft.

According to the NPA, further ATM thefts are unlikely to occur as cash left at empty stores and banks has now been collected.

Arrests have been made in connection with only one of the thefts. On Wednesday, the Miyagi prefectural police arrested five male minors on suspicion of stealing 13 million yen (S$1.99 million) from an ATM.

Police are struggling to make breakthroughs in investigations into other cases.

In Iwate Prefecture, about 27 million yen (S$4.15 million) was stolen from ATMs at two convenience stores, while one financial institution was the target of an attempted theft.

In Miyagi Prefecture, ATMs at 14 convenience stores were robbed of about 165 million yen in total, and about 15 million yen (S$2.30 million) was stolen from ATMs at five financial institutions. Most of the ATMs had been knocked down by the March 11 tsunami.

In Fukushima Prefecture, 34 cases of theft from ATMs were reported, with a total of about 480 million yen (S$73.8 million) stolen.

Twenty-eight cases took place in the zone within 20 kilometers of the crippled nuclear power plant, which was largely deserted after an evacuation advisory was issued on March 12. The remaining six cases involved ATMs damaged by the tsunami.

Except for the one case in Miyagi Prefecture, police have made no arrests in relation to the many ATM thefts that have occurred in the three prefectures since the disaster.

One reason for the police's lack of progress in investigating the thefts is that alarm systems and security cameras at many stores and banks were not operating at the time of the robberies, due to power outages caused by the disaster.

Meanwhile, 169 robberies of empty houses within 20 kilometers of the Fukushima power plant were reported between March 1 and June 30, a massive increase from the nine home burglaries reported during the same period last year.

Similarly, with most offices in the area also abandoned, the number of office robberies rose to 25 from one.

In many cases, evacuees discovered their houses had been burglarized when they briefly returned home after their initial evacuation.

The number of reported home robberies is likely to increase, as 16,000 households that have requested permission to make a temporary return home have yet to do so.

'TEPCO should compensate us'

Falling victim to burglars and thieves has added to the agony of evacuees whose homes are within 20 kilometers of the crippled Fukushima power plant.

"It's a dirty act," one such person said.

A 37-year-old company employee of Tomiokamachi, Fukushima Prefecture, who returned to his home temporarily on July 6, said he was shocked to find windows on the first floor broken and all the drawers inside his house open. Credit cards and his wife's ring had been stolen, he said.

"The burglary happened because of the nuclear accidents. I want TEPCO [Tokyo Electric Power Co.] to compensate us for this damage," he said.

Keiko Saito, a 60-year-old housewife of Minami-Soma in the prefecture who has evacuated to Saitama Prefecture, said she was told by a person who visited the 20-kilometer zone in early April that someone had apparently broken windows at her house. She has not yet checked her house personally, because aftershocks have made her hesitant to return home.

Saito said, "I want to return home as soon as possible, but it's been difficult to arrange a date. I have to match my schedule to the dates picked by the municipality."