<Anchor>
A 20-year-old was caught pretending to wear a necklace while touring a gold and silver store in the metropolitan area and running away wearing it around his neck.
The victims were able to catch the culprit by sharing the suspect's personal information in real time.
Reporter Lee Tae-kwon covered the story exclusively.
<Reporter>
A man wearing black padding enters a gold and silver room in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province.
He puts the gold necklace around his neck and looks in the mirror, but runs away while the owner takes out another item.
The man came out of the store wearing a gold necklace and ran out onto the main street.
The store owner ran out immediately, but the man had already disappeared into this alley.
Three days later, the man ran away with the necklace he was looking at at a store in Incheon.
Since the 25th of last month, the man has been through seven gold and silver rooms in Seoul and Gyeonggi.
Of these, 26 million won worth of gold necklaces were stolen from four places.
The common target was a 20-dollar bill that was so heavy that the selling price reached 7 million won.
The theft ended with the wit of the gold and silver store owners.
Enlarge Image
In an SNS group chat room, the victims shared the clothes of the thief captured on CCTV and the phone number they called before the crime.
The characteristics of the crime, such as making a phone call before the crime and asking about the product, were also spread intact.
Eventually, on the 7th, a call came to a store in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul asking if there was a necklace worth 20 dollars, and the police who had been hiding after receiving the report arrested the man.
[Park Gwang-cheol/Korea Gold Exchange Yeongdeungpo Branch Owner: The police were there in advance.
But since we've already learned our faces through the group chat room...
.]
The police arrested a 21-year-old surnamed Kim on charges of theft and are investigating whether additional crimes were committed.
(Video coverage: Kim Seung-tae, Video editing: Choi Hye-ran, CG: Seo Dong-min)