"Have a Safe Trip": The Absurd Story of Police Letting a Suspect Go

A fraud victim personally tracked down the suspect's whereabouts and requested the police make an arrest, only for the responding officers to let the suspect slip away.

Last March, a victim who ran a distribution company in Jongno-gu filed a fraud complaint with the police after a man hired through an acquaintance vanished with 5 million won in company funds just a week into the job.

The police handling the case responded that they could not locate the suspect, prompting the victim to directly provide the police with the suspect's address obtained through an acquaintance.

However, the arrest still was not made, and eventually, the victim, out of patience, lured the suspect from Busan to Seoul and asked the police for help, but an absurd situation unfolded.

[Victim : They suddenly conducted a stop-and-question and let him go. They asked, 'Are you [Name]?', and the (suspect) said, 'No, I am [Name]', using my identity. Even though I had given (the police) all my name and everything, and the con artist stated my name and my resident registration number, they said, 'Mr. [Name], I am sorry. Please go home safely,' and let him go.]

In the end, the police were fooled by the suspect and failed to make the arrest.

[Lee Kyung-min / Lawyer : It is a problem that could have ended if the victim had caught him directly, but after asking the police for help and missing him, this is not just a level of failing to eat food spoon-fed to them, but rather like saying 'I won't eat it, spit it out' and even throwing ashes over it.]

Experts pointed out that it was inappropriate that even basic identity verification was not carried out, and an official from the jurisdiction's district police unit also acknowledged shortcomings, stating that the transmission of informant information was insufficient.

The victim obtained intelligence that the fleeing suspect was in Busan and informed the police again, but this time was reportedly given the response to "file a report directly with the Busan police station."

As the controversy grew, the police explained, "It was not the intent to go to Busan and report directly, but rather the intent that an on-site dispatch could be requested through a 112 report."

Ultimately, the suspect has still not been caught, and the police stated that they have currently requested a commissioned location investigation from the police station with jurisdiction over the Busan area.

(Planned by: Lee Seyoung | Video edited by: Kim Na-on | Video source: News Hunters | Produced by: SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.