Yusuke Taniguchi, a 34-year old cashier from Tokyo has been arrested in a police sting that claims he used his photographic memory to remember, and later write down, credit card information.
The suspect was said to have used the stolen information to buy bags online, totaling an estimated 2,600 US dollars.
The police intercepted that order and delivered Taniguchi's bags themselves to catch the alleged thief, according to Vice.
However, according to science, there is no concrete evidence to support anyone having a "photographic memory".
"Scientists have not found evidence of photographic memories, but there are people with very good memories who can recall information in astounding detail - an eidetic memory," according to Daniel Burns, a professor of psychology at Union College in New York.
"In our mind, a 'photographic memory' is being able to look at something and days later call up a picture that's identical to the actual image," he said. "That doesn't seem to exist."
It is common that people relate having an eidetic memory to having a photographic memory, but according to research, they are not the same at all.
A person with an eidetic memory can see an image and recall that image in great detail up to four minutes later. That is not the same as being able to recall information you've simply looked at any time you choose.
And to further debunk the suspect's claims, eidetic memory is normally found in children younger than 12 and is simply not found in adults, according to research.
According to Jennifer Coane, an associate professor of psychology at Colby College in Maine, the ability to store such imagery in one's mind would be extremely troublesome. "You could never be able to erase anything from your mind, because everything would pile up," she said, pointing to research that suggests forgetting actually improves learning.
Police haven't released any information regarding just how the man was able to remember the credit card numbers, but professor Coane believes he simply trained himself to remember.
"A lot of people just train much like a gymnast trains or an expert violinist," she said. "You can train yourself to be an expert memorizer."
