Flyers Removed, Sent to Prosecution for Property Damage
Mother: "Illegal Flyers, Not Official Notice"
Apartment Manager Also Sent to Prosecution
The story of a middle school student who was sent to the prosecution after casually removing a flyer posted in an elevator has come to light.
JTBC's 'Case Manager' revealed the story of A, a third-year middle school student and daughter of a tipster living in Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, on the 30th. One day, A boarded the elevator in her apartment and tidied her hair while looking at the mirror hanging on the wall. Then, perhaps because the paper attached to the wall was obstructing her view of the mirror, she removed the paper by hand. After arriving at the floor where her home was located, she got off the elevator and quickly tore off the same paper posted in front of the entrance door and threw it on the floor.
Three months later, A received a notification from the police station that she had been sent to the prosecution on charges of property damage. Unable to accept this, the tipster contacted the criminal department and said, "If it’s a referral rather than a non-prosecution, it means they think there is a charge, so I want to ask why they thought so." The officer in charge replied, "There is no justification for illegality in A’s actions, and the charges are clear, so the decision to send the case was made. The behavior itself meets the elements of property damage as defined by criminal law. Also, since she is not a juvenile exempt from prosecution, she is at an age where she must take responsibility for her actions."
The tipster explained to 'Case Manager,' "Isn’t it likely that the person who posted the flyer reported it? These illegal flyers are always posted on every house and even on the elevator mirror. However, our apartment has a bulletin board where you can post such flyers by paying 33,000 won per week." She added, "Even though we asked them to remove it, they forcibly post them. The building manager also said that removing them is part of his job, so he just removed them, but he and my daughter have both been sent to the prosecution. I told them not to post illegal flyers, but the person who lowered the utility of the mirror by posting them is the one guilty of property damage, so how can my daughter be sent to prosecution for removing just one piece of paper?"
She also said, "The elevator mirror is about four spans in total, and one and a half spans were covered by an A3-sized paper. My daughter thought the flyer was the same as the gym promotional flyers usually posted in front of the house because it did not have the (management office’s) seal, so she removed it." In other words, the problematic paper was an illegal flyer posted by a self-governing group in the apartment, not an official notice from the apartment management office or the residents’ representative committee. It is known that this group has not only posted flyers for the first time but has continuously posted them throughout the apartment complex. Finally, the tipster said, "Why should the victim suffer instead of the one committing the illegal act? My daughter is currently going through puberty and preparing for high school entrance exams, so she is under a lot of stress. She wakes up in the middle of the night and cries and makes a fuss."
Netizens who read the story responded with comments such as, "What right do they have to claim property damage over an illegal flyer?", "Is it reasonable to send someone to prosecution over something like this?", and "If this results in a guilty verdict, everyone will start posting flyers everywhere."
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