When a JR Tokyo station platform attendant was shot at close-range during a dispute amidst early morning rush hour back in 2004, the suspect’s clean getaway from police could probably be attributed to the fact that within the orchestrated chaos of Tokyo’s rush hour, an entire sea of humanity is shifted from one side of the city to the other. The possibility that the suspect was outright washed away in the rush of bodies is just as plausible as one where he intentionally escaped.

But what about the infamous Hawker murder, from spring of 2007, where the killer not once, but twice slipped from the grasp of Japan’s finest? Eighteen months into the case, and Tatsuya Ichihashi, the case’s only suspect still remains at large. In their defense though, the suspect was purported to be very stealthy (having lost his shoes) in his initial escape, and continues to hide using a clever variety of advanced disguises (most recently rumored to be hiding out in Tokyo’s gay district).

However, being a Japanese policeman isn’t all heavy lifting and no arrests. The police are also widely recognized for their kindness–like to Mr. Hifumi Kubota, who was soaked in kerosene when taken into custody earlier this year. Once in the police station, the weary Mr. Kubota requested a cigarette and lighter–a request his sympathetic captors were all too happy to oblige. So you can imagine their surprise when, in plain view of the station’s ‘no smoking signs,’ Mr. Kubota accidentally lit up like a human torch soaked in, well, kerosene.

So how then did a monkey so easily manage to elude capture from a battalion of blue and whites in JR Shibuya Station earlier this week? Quite credulous actually. Just read the story’s finer print regarding the slippery simian: rush hour,” “barefoot,” “politely declined a smoke.”