English Speaking Criminal Robs Car Parts Store

The Japanese media is reporting that a man wearing a black ski mask robbed a Yellow Hat car parts store in Kanagawa Prefecture:

At about 11:10 p.m., a man sneaked into the office of a car parts shop in Yamato and demanded money from the 34-year-old manager saying, “Money, money,” in broken English, investigators said.

The manager handed over 34 million yen from the shop’s takings to the robber. The culprit then bound the manager’s hands with adhesive tape before fleeing. The manager was not injured.

Local police suspect that the robber sneaked into the shop through its unlocked backdoor. Investigators quoted the shop manager as telling them that the robber was about 180 centimeters tall and was wearing a black balaclava and black clothes.

The English and Japanese language versions of the article on Mainichi’s website end by stating that it is unclear whether or not the criminal was a foreigner [several other Japanese media outlets did not include such a disclaimer]. While the English article says the man spoke “broken English,” I cannot find such information in the Japanese language version of the article. (Does writing out “money” as “マネー” imply broken English?)

Is this another case of the editorial staff of a Japanese newspaper’s English edition cleaning up their parent organization’s articles for friendlier foreign consumption?