M.O. shows groper was actually looking to get both an eyeful and a handful.

On the afternoon of February 28, a 26-year-old woman was working her shift in the cosmetics section of a department store in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward. At around 1:50, a man in his early 30s approached her, squinting and walking with hesitant steps. “I can’t see,” he informed her, and asked for assistance in locating the restroom.

Restroom guidance isn’t generally something that’s included in the responsibilities of makeup salespeople, but this being Japan, where excellent customer service is always something to strive for, the woman agreed to lead the man to the men’s room. Before arriving, though, he tumbled to the ground. When the woman crouched down to help him up, however, he grabbed and fondled her chest, then made a quick escape.

The police were contacted, and while looking through the store’s security videos they found footage of the man navigating the shop’s walkways with ease, leading them to believe that he was merely pretending to be visually impaired and his “stumbling” had been a willful action.

Based on the video evidence, on July 9, police officers in Kanagawa (the prefecture to Tokyo’s south) arrested Yosuke Mizokami, a resident of the city of Hadano. The 33-year-old Mizokami, who has no significant vision problems, admitted to being the man behind the February 28 groping, and investigators are also looking into whether or not he was involved in multiple other cases of saleswomen being groped by a man who claimed to be blind which have occurred in Tokyo and Kanagawa.

In the security footage taken on February 28, Mizokami can be seen not only walking about the store with no problem, but also visibly checking out the female staff before choosing his target. That’s pretty poor technique for someone who’s planning to pretend to be blind, but it sounds like as healthy as his eyes may be, he’s probably got some serious mental problems.

Source: Yahoo! Japan News/Jiji via Hachima Kiko

Top image: Pakutaso