Man in His 20s Arrested for Stealing 500 Million Won Worth of Jewelry from Hypermarket at Night Wearing Raincoat

A man in his 20s has been arrested by police for breaking into a jewelry store inside a large hypermarket and fleeing with hundreds of millions of won worth of valuables.

The Incheon Namdong Police Station announced today (September 16) that it has urgently arrested a man in his 20s, identified as A, on charges of nighttime burglary of a structure and theft, and has requested an arrest warrant.

A is accused of stealing 173 14K and 18K gold bracelets (estimated by the owner to be worth 500 million won) at around 2:00 AM on September 14 from a jewelry store on the second floor of the Homeplus Ganseok branch in Namdong-gu, Incheon, and fleeing by taxi.

Upon receiving the report, police tracked down A and urgently arrested him 12 hours later at 2:43 PM the same day on a street in Hwagok-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, recovering all of the stolen jewelry.

CCTV footage capturing the moment of the crime shows A approaching the store wearing a hooded raincoat and a mask covering his face, even though it was not raining that day.

He then used his hands to lift and clear the fabric covering the display case, smashed the upper glass with a blunt instrument, and grabbed the jewelry before fleeing.

As the crime target is a large hypermarket that maintains a relatively high level of security, police plan to continue investigating whether there was an internal accomplice.

Although the hypermarket and the store each had contracts with private security companies, they failed to stop A as he fled after breaking into the hypermarket and completing the crime.

In particular, as a result of checking recent movements, police found that A approached the hypermarket for the first time just before the crime, looked around the premises, and broke into the interior through a window.

A police official said, "To prevent violent crimes targeting jewelry businesses ahead of the Chuseok holiday, we will strive to minimize security blind spots by checking CCTV operation status and the installation of emergency bells."

(Photo provided by Incheon Namdong Police Station, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.