Deliberately Colliding and Demanding Repair Costs... 38 Victims

[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 more than 20 million won from 38 victims using this method.

Reporter Im Jihyeon has the story.

[Reporter]

During evening hours, the busy concourse of Jamsil Station in Seoul.

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 the dropped mobile phone, talks for a long time, and then walks away somewhere together.

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

Targeting the fact that people mostly move in a hurry in crowded concourses, the suspect, surnamed A, intentionally bumped into them and then shoved a pre-prepared broken mobile phone in their faces to demand repair costs.

[Cho Gyeong-ho / Bupyeong-gu, Incheon: It made me think it was an unexpected method, and there could actually be people whose phones were broken. It's also ambiguous to just rashly ignore it and walk away....]

When the police launched an investigation upon receiving reports and checked A's bank transfer records, it was revealed that the victims numbered as many as 38.

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

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

Most of the victims reportedly told police that although they felt A's actions were strange, they did not think it was severe enough to report to the police.

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

Police have detained A on fraud charges and forwarded the case to the prosecutors' office.

(Video by Choi Dae-woong | Video Editing by Park Chun-bae)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.