By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
A father was booked for forcing his son to participate in a burglary.
Busan police Wednesday sought an arrest warrant for the 40-year-old father, Choi, on charges of trespassing in a woman's house, threatening her with a knife, and robbing her of money. They also charged his 16-year-old son, without physical detention, for assisting the father by keeping a lookout outside the house.
Choi enticed the 25-year-old victim, Park, who lives alone, to open the door of her house in Busan around 10 a.m. last Thursday by posing as someone delivering a credit card. He threatened her with a knife, tied her hands and feet with rope, and took money and jewels worth some 1 million won ($1,000).
The high school student son, who was standing guard outside while the father was robbing Park inside, then took her credit cards to withdraw money at a bank. He withdrew 290,000 won with the personal identification number (PIN) which the father got out of her by threatening her.
Park testified that Choi gave the PIN to his son when he called the father collect from a public phone booth near the bank, and police caught the two after they captured the son's image on closed-circuit television installed in the phone booth.
Police found out the father and son had committed a similar crime days earlier.
Choi, who was living in a shabby flat with his son after getting divorced, said he mobilized his son and committed the crime as the water supply and electricity were cut off at his home and he couldn't pay the rent, a police officer said.
``Choi said he decided to commit the crime as he had difficulty getting a job due to his criminal record and he could not feed his son properly,'' the officer said.