Middle School Girl Mistaken for Thief... Store Owner Sued for Posting Photo in Store

Mistaken for a thief, photo of female middle school student posted in store
Owner: "Kiosk error... only feeling sorry"
Student's parents: "How can she face people?" complain

An unmanned store owner who mistook a female middle school student for a thief posted her facial photo inside the store and was reported to the police.

According to Yonhap News on the 3rd, "Incheon Jungbu Police Station received a complaint the day before requesting punishment for Mr. A, a man in his 40s who owns a sandwich unmanned store, on charges of defamation and insult." The father of middle school student Ms. B, who filed the complaint against Mr. A, told Yonhap News, "My daughter bought a 3,400 won sandwich at Mr. A's store late at night on the 29th of last month using 'smartphone easy payment,'" and added, "Two days later, when my daughter went back to the store, her facial photo was posted." He continued, "My daughter was so shocked to see her photo labeled as a thief that she cannot study properly now," and lamented, "How can she hold her head up in the neighborhood from now on?"

An unmanned store owner who mistook a middle school girl for a thief posted her face photo inside the store and was reported to the police.
[Photo by Reader Provided·Yonhap News]

Mr. A misunderstood Ms. B as a thief and captured a CCTV screen showing her face, printed it on paper without mosaic blurring, and posted it inside the store. Under the photo, he wrote, "The woman who bought a sandwich, pretended to pay, pressed the 'screen reset' button, and just took it! Did she kindly leave her face clearly on the CCTV screen for us to catch her? Please contact us." However, Ms. B had paid for the sandwich properly, and Mr. A realized this fact belatedly.

Mr. A said, "Until now, there is no purchase record of Ms. B on the payment device (kiosk), so it seems there was an error," and added, "I inquired with the easy payment company yesterday morning and confirmed that the payment was made properly." He said, "I posted the photo because I thought she was boldly committing theft and felt resentful, but I want to express my apologies to the hurt student."

However, Ms. B's parents reportedly want punishment, saying Mr. A damaged their daughter's reputation and caused humiliation by publicly posting her photo without properly checking the payment records. Ms. B's parents expressed their grievance, saying, "My daughter, who used easy payment for the first time, showed the payment record to the store's CCTV just in case the payment did not go through and she was misunderstood as a thief, but she was accused of theft."

The police plan to summon Ms. B or her parents soon for a complainant investigation and then further verify the facts with Mr. A. A police official said, "We plan to summon the complainant soon for investigation and review whether defamation or insult charges can be applied to the unmanned store owner."

Store Owners and Police Struggle with Increasing Theft at Unmanned Stores

Recently, theft incidents related to unmanned stores have been occurring one after another. According to statistics from the Fire Agency as of March last year, it is estimated that a total of 6,323 unmanned stores are operating domestically. This figure includes unmanned ice cream stores (2,011), study cafes (967), meal kits (662), and the Fire Agency expects the number to be higher when including various types of unmanned stores such as claw machine shops.

As thousands of unmanned stores relying solely on CCTV operate across the country, theft has also increased significantly. According to statistics released by the National Police Agency, the number of theft cases at unmanned stores in 2022 reached 6,018.
[Photo by Asia Economy DB]

With thousands of unmanned stores operating nationwide relying only on CCTV without staff, theft has also increased significantly. According to statistics released by the National Police Agency, the number of theft cases at unmanned stores in 2022 reached 6,018. This is a 71% increase compared to the 3,514 cases that occurred from March 2021, when statistics collection began, to December of the same year. As theft reports at unmanned stores increase, the workload of on-site police officers has also increased accordingly. Additionally, since many theft cases involve small amounts, police investigative resources are being dispersed.

Due to these issues, unmanned store owners have resorted to a secondary measure of capturing CCTV images and publicly posting photos of suspected thieves inside the store as a form of private sanction. However, publicly posting customers' facial photos inside the store can lead to criminal punishment. In fact, an unmanned stationery store owner who posted a customer's facial photo inside the store suspecting theft was fined 300,000 won in the first trial in March on charges of defamation.