Telling a Suspect "Have a Safe Trip" and Letting Them Go: The Absurd Truth

A fraud victim personally tracked down the whereabouts of a suspect and requested the police to make an arrest, but the dispatched police officers ended up letting the suspect slip away.

Back in March, a victim who operated a distribution company in Jongno-gu filed a fraud case with the police station after a man hired through an acquaintance vanished with 5 million won in company funds just a week after starting work.

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

However, the arrest was still not made, and eventually, a frustrated victim lured the suspect from Busan to Seoul and requested police assistance, only for an absurd situation to unfold.

[Victim: They suddenly conducted a random stop-and-search and let him go. They asked, "Are you OOO?" and the suspect replied, "No, I am △△△," while reciting my identity. Even though I had given all my information, including my name, to the police, the con artist stated my name and my resident registration number, and the police said, "Mr. △△△, I'm 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: This is a problem that could have ended if the victim had caught him personally. Because they asked the police for help and ended up losing him, this is not just at the level of failing to eat food fed to you; it's a situation where they said, 'I can't eat it, spit it out,' and even threw 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 box also acknowledged shortcomings, stating that the transmission of reporter information was insufficient.

The victim obtained information 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 file a report in person, but rather that 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.