Intentionally Colliding and Demanding Repair Costs... Extorted 20 Million Won from 38 People

[Anchor]

A man in his 20s has been arrested by police for intentionally bumping into passersby in public places, dropping his mobile phone, and demanding repair costs. It was revealed that he extorted over 20 million won from 38 victims using this method.

Reporter Im Jihyeon has the story.

[Reporter]

During the evening hours, the concourse of Jamsil Station in Seoul is busy with people coming and going.

A man is walking along when he suddenly collides with someone approaching from the opposite direction.

In front of the person bowing their head to apologize, he picks up his dropped mobile phone, talks for a long time, and then walks away together somewhere.

They are heading to demand money after receiving a mobile phone repair cost estimate.

Targeting the fact that people moving through crowded concourses are mostly in a hurry, Mr. A intentionally collided with them and then shoved a previously prepared broken mobile phone in their faces to demand repair costs.

[Cho Gyeong-ho / Bupyeong-gu, Incheon: I thought it was an unexpected method, and since there could actually be people whose phones were broken, it's a bit ambiguous to just rashly ignore it and walk away....]

When the police launched an investigation upon receiving reports and checked Mr. A's account transfer history, it was revealed that the victims amounted to as many as 38 people.

The repair costs he demanded ranged from 400,000 won to 1.5 million won per person.

Over a period of 5 months starting last January, he extorted 22 million won using this method.

The victims reportedly told police that although most of them felt Mr. A's behavior was strange, they didn't think it was enough to report to the police.

[Kim Dae-geun / Team 5, Detective Division 1, Songpa Police Station: (At mobile phone stores) he received verbal estimates and demanded that exact amount from the victims. Those who responded by saying, 'I will pay compensation after checking the CCTV,' mostly avoided becoming victims.]

Police have detained Mr. A on fraud charges and forwarded the case to the prosecution.

(Photo: Yonhap News / Video reporting: Choi Dae-woong / Video editing: Park Chun-bae)

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