A teenager who posed as a buyer on a secondhand transaction platform, set up a face-to-face appointment, then snatched a 30-don gold bracelet at the transaction site and fled has been caught by police. Police tracked the taxi used in the escape and CCTV, then arrested the suspect immediately at the drop-off point.
The Seongnam Jungwon Police Station in Gyeonggi said on Feb. 5 it will seek an arrest warrant for high school student A on suspicion of theft.
A is accused of stealing and fleeing with a 30-don gold bracelet (market value about 30 million won) belonging to B, whom A met through a secondhand site, on a street near a Community Service Center in Jungwon District, Seongnam, at about 2:50 p.m. on the 4th.
According to police, during a face-to-face transaction A suddenly grabbed the gold bracelet that B put out and immediately ran away. The victim, B, gave chase but lost A and promptly reported it to police.
After receiving the report, police reviewed nearby CCTV and confirmed that A boarded a taxi while fleeing, then identified the vehicle's license plate number. They contacted the taxi driver to determine the route, and it was reported that officers were deployed around Sangbong Station in Jungnang District, Seoul, where A was expected to get off, and arrested A at the moment of disembarking.
During questioning, A is said to have testified to the effect that A "had borrowed money from an acquaintance and was in debt, and committed the crime to get a tattoo." The investigation also confirmed that since last month A had already been apprehended and was under non-detention investigation in connection with two separate gold theft cases.
Police recovered the stolen property from A and returned it to B, while checking for additional offenses, including whether there were other victims.