Luxury Wallet Found and Returned After Investigation Results in 'Fine'

Seoul Eastern District Court Sentences Fine of 800,000 Won

A man in his 20s who picked up someone else's luxury wallet on the subway but did not return it was fined only after a police investigation began.

On the 27th, Shin Hyun-il, Chief Judge of Criminal Division 2 at the Seoul Eastern District Court, announced that he sentenced A (26) to a fine of 800,000 won on charges of embezzlement of lost property. A was prosecuted for picking up a black Prada card wallet worth about 620,000 won on the Seoul subway but failing to follow procedures to return the wallet to its owner, such as handing it over to the station office.

The wallet’s owner, B, lost the wallet on the subway around 11 p.m. on June 11 last year. The wallet contained three credit cards, two debit cards, and one resident registration card. About three months after losing the wallet, B received the wallet and the cards inside through the post office. A had put B’s wallet into a mailbox.

Although A returned the wallet, he still had to stand trial. A key issue in the trial was when he put the wallet into the mailbox. A claimed that he put the wallet in the mailbox immediately after picking it up, but the court did not accept this.

The first trial court stated, "The day B received the wallet and other items back was September 20 last year, which was after A was investigated for this case," and added, "In light of this, A’s claim is not accepted." A appealed the first trial verdict.

Meanwhile, last year, there was also a case where a train operator affiliated with Incheon Transit Corporation was booked without detention for secretly taking a luxury wallet left behind by a passenger on a train. C, a train operator in his 30s affiliated with Incheon Transit Corporation, was accused of secretly taking a Prada card wallet worth about 400,000 won left by a passenger on a train turning around at Songdo Dalbit Festival Park Station on Incheon Subway Line 1 in Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, around 5:30 p.m. on May 19 last year, without returning it.

At the time, C found the wallet while inspecting the train during the turnaround but lied to the passenger who came looking for the wallet, saying, "I did not find the wallet." It is known that he kept the wallet for himself and only returned the three credit cards inside the wallet to the passenger. When the passenger reported to 112 to find the wallet, only then did C register the wallet as lost property with the subway. Eventually, C went to the police station and confessed to the crime. Incheon Transit Corporation dismissed C from his position.