"First Time Smelling Fishy Odor"... Man Who Committed 'Che-aek Terror' in Female Employee's Drink Surrenders

Foreign Substance Found in Female Employee's Drink at Seoul Cafe
Employee: "Smelled Strange... Spat It Out Because It Was Disgusting"
Man Paid Without Leaving Personal Information... Surrendered After Broadcast

A man who was caught putting a foreign substance into a drink consumed by a female employee at a cafe in Seoul has reportedly turned himself in to the police amid controversy.

According to MBN on the 16th, a man in his 20s identified as Mr. A, who put a foreign substance into a drink consumed by a female employee at a cafe near a women's university in Seoul, turned himself in to the police ten days after the incident occurred. He stated that the foreign substance was his bodily fluid and reportedly turned himself in due to anxiety caused by media coverage.

Person A putting a foreign substance into a beverage. [Image source=JTBC broadcast screen capture]

The incident was first reported on JTBC’s “Sageon Banjang” on the 5th. Ms. B, a woman working at a cafe in Seoul, said that while working, she briefly set down her coffee and then took a sip again, but immediately spat it out after detecting a foul fishy smell. Ms. B told JTBC, “I always drink iced Americano, but the moment I sucked it through the straw, it was really disgusting and smelled fishy, so I spat it out as soon as I swallowed. Then I put my nose to the coffee and smelled something I had never encountered before. It was a smell that had never come from the store’s coffee before.”

Upon reviewing the cafe’s closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage, it was found that Mr. A, a male customer, took an unidentified object out of his bag, put it in his pocket, and approached the counter. While Ms. B was taking an order and went into the kitchen, the man secretly put the foreign substance into her drink. Mr. A paid using a mobile coupon to avoid leaving personal information. However, the police tracked the CCTV footage and secured records of the man’s card usage near the cafe.

Mr. A turned himself in to the police on the 12th, just before the police executed a search warrant on the card company. He reportedly stated to the police that the foreign substance was his bodily fluid. The Yongsan Police Station in Seoul booked Mr. A without detention on charges of property damage and requested the National Forensic Service to analyze the foreign substance.

So-called “bodily fluid terror” incidents have occurred before. Previously, a public official in his 40s was caught multiple times putting his bodily fluid into a female colleague’s tumbler, and a male student was caught committing bodily fluid terror by putting bodily fluid on female students’ shoes on a university campus. Those charged with property damage were fined 3 million won and 500,000 won, respectively.

There are ongoing calls to classify acts of bodily fluid terror as sexual crimes, as they involve sexual intent and cause sexual discomfort to the victims. On the 18th of last month, Representative Baek Hye-ryun of the Democratic Party of Korea introduced a bill to amend the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes to classify bodily fluid terror as a criminal sexual offense punishable by law.