Elderly Man Who Collected Waste Caught Stealing Wallet and Clothes from Someone Else's Shopping Bag

International Student Leaving Shopping Bag by Roadside to Take Photos
Man Taking Wallet from Shopping Bag

A man who stole a wallet and clothes from a shopping bag briefly placed on the roadside by a foreign student was caught by the police.

On the 17th, a video titled "Catching the culprit who secretly took a foreign student's cash and padded jumper" was uploaded on the YouTube account 'Seoul Police'.

In the released video, around 1 p.m. on the 22nd of last month, foreign student A placed a shopping bag on the roadside in Gangnam, Seoul, briefly to take a photo. A had put a wallet and a padded jumper in the shopping bag and moved away.

At that moment, man B, who was pulling a recycling cart, passed by. After discovering the shopping bag, B took out the padded jumper inside. Then, he also took out the wallet containing 400,000 won in cash, checked its contents, and took it. Closed-circuit television (CCTV) captured B’s actions in full.

[Image source=YouTube account 'Seoul Police']

Shortly after, A returned to retrieve the shopping bag and was shocked to find the items missing. Distraught, A fortunately reported the incident to the police with the help of a citizen.

The police who arrived at the scene reassured A and reviewed the crime footage recorded on CCTV. They then searched the area near the crime scene to apprehend B. After about an hour of searching, the police found B pulling the cart. B admitted to the crime under police questioning and was ultimately arrested for embezzlement of lost property.

Netizens who saw the video responded with various comments such as "You shouldn’t leave your belongings anywhere," "It’s a crime to take something that obviously belongs to someone," and "He even took the cash inside the wallet."

Meanwhile, according to Article 1 of the Lost Property Act, if someone finds another person's lost property, they must return it to the owner or submit it to the police. Violation of this law constitutes embezzlement of lost property, punishable by imprisonment of up to one year, a fine of up to 3 million won, or a penalty.