A Man Claims To Have Robbed 1,300 People Using Nothing But His Memory

In Tokyo, a cashier claims to have used his photographic memory to steal the credit card numbers of customers he rang up at his cash register. He then used them to buy products online. It only took him a few minutes to memorise the numbers and write them down on a piece of paper.

The robber arrested

The 34-year-old Japanese man was arrested by the police after buying $ 2,600 worth of goods. The police intercepted the order and delivered it in person to the thief, who probably wasn't expecting to be greeted by a delivery man with handcuffs.

During the interrogation, he confessed to the police that his photographic memory allowed him to steal banking information from customers who came by his cash register.

Science says otherwise

Indeed, scientists do not agree with the thief's explanation and have found no evidence of photographic memory. However, scientists believe it might have something to do with eidetic memory.

There may not be much of a difference between photographic memory and eidetic memory, but scientists say it's there. They claim that a person who has eidetic memory can remember an image in great detail after only seeing it once and can retain it for about 4 minutes. Photographic memory would have allowed him to remember it up to several days later.