"Let's Go to an Abandoned House"... Man in His 30s Arrested for Luring Teen Girls and Abandoning Them in the Mountains at Night

Signs of Verbal Sexual Harassment During the Drive
"Pranks Targeting Minors May Constitute Crimes"

A group of men in their 20s and 30s who lured teenage girls with the bait of a so-called "abandoned house experience" and then left them in the mountains in the early hours of the morning have been caught by police. The ringleader has ultimately been arrested and detained, as the shocking crime could not be dismissed as a mere prank.

The Dongducheon Police Station in Gyeonggi Province announced on the 16th that it had arrested a man in his 30s, identified as A, and two men in their 20s on charges of luring minors and violating the Child Welfare Act, and that the ringleader A had been taken into custody.

According to the police investigation, in October last year A and the others lured two 14-year-old middle school girls they had met on a random chat app by saying, "Let's go have an abandoned house experience." The victims, including a girl identified as B, became interested and got into a car with them in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, then traveled to Dongducheon.

Around 1:00 a.m., after arriving near Soyo Mountain in Dongducheon, the perpetrators pretended to walk together with the girls, then secretly slipped away. The victim, left alone, felt terrified and called the emergency number 112. Immediately after receiving the report, the police began an investigation by analyzing CCTV footage near the scene.

A police official explained, "At first, we also considered the possibility of sex crimes, unlawful confinement, or abduction, but no related charges were found," adding, "There was also no evidence that the victims were filmed or live-streamed." However, during the investigation, the police found some indications of verbal sexual harassment during the drive, and they conducted a parallel investigation into that as well.

Nevertheless, the police regarded the very act of luring minors and abandoning them on a wooded mountain as serious, even if it was claimed to be a prank, and summoned A and his accomplices for questioning. They evaded the summons instead of complying and were eventually arrested, and the ringleader A was detained.

A was found to be an ordinary self-employed worker who had gotten to know the two accomplices through online chat. Regarding his motive, A stated, "I did it because I find it fun to see people suddenly startled and flustered in the dark."

A police official said, "Aside from this case, there were two other instances where they played similar pranks on adults using the same method, but we did not book them because there are no applicable punishment provisions," and warned, "Targeting minors, who have limited social experience and poor sense of direction, goes beyond the level of a prank and constitutes a crime, and it carries the risk of leading to a much more serious accident."