A pair of masked robbers. A window with a broken lock. A dozing night watchman. It was no Ocean's 11 kind of a heist, but these were the elements in play that allowed two men to make off with $7.4 million, making it the largest robbery ever in Japan, according to state broadcaster NHK.

Brad Pitt and George Clooney in the 2001 film "Ocean's 11." Photofest

The two men stole 604 million yen, about $7.4 million, from a Tokyo security firm in the wee hours Thursday morning. The amount exceeds the previous record set seven years ago when 504 million yen was stolen from a shipping company in Tochigi Prefecture.

The armed robbers snuck into the security firm in Tachikawa City, on the western outskirts of Tokyo, through a side window with a broken lock, catching the napping watchman off guard, according to NHK, citing police officials. The duo weren't exactly gentlemen thieves about it. They bound the 36-year-old security guard with adhesive tape. They hit him multiple times with a steel pipe and stabbed him several times, coercing him into revealing the code to the room holding the money. The security firm had fetched the cash from the a Tokyo post office and was planning to send it on to a post office in the Tama area, located west of Tokyo. The guard suffered a broken arm among other injuries and is currently hospitalized. The police suspect the men targeted the firm knowing it was holding the money, and the investigation continues. The Tachikawa police and Tokyo Metropolitan police department declined to comment. Read this post in Japanese/日本語訳はこちら≫

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