2 men nabbed for book theft

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Tue, September 26, 2023 | 05:13

2 men nabbed for book theft

Posted : 2010-07-22 19:17

Updated : 2010-07-22 19:17

By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff reporter

Two elderly men, who habitually stole books from bookstores for more than two years, were caught by the police Wednesday.

The Seoul Seongdong Police Station arrested Kim, 75, and Kwon, 67, for pilfering books from large bookstores since 2008. The men travelled abroad with money reaped from reselling the stolen books. Kim has accrued a long criminal record for stealing books over the course of some 30 years. He even bought a house with the money from the sale of the stolen books.

According to the police, the two were caught when they were attempting to steal Bibles and educational books by hiding them in their clothes last week. They are suspected of swiping at least 450 books, worth 6.5 million won in total.

The police investigation discovered that secondhand bookshops near Cheonggye Stream texted the men lists of requested books. The two would then steal the titles and sell them to the used bookstores at half price.

They stole one to three books at a time, mostly study material for middle or high school students and expensive law books.

"They met each other in a prison some 20 years ago and kept in touch while serving their prison terms for several cases of larceny," a police officer said. "They seem to have spent the money to make a trip to Southeast Asia and for entertainment purposes. We are further investigating their use of the money."

The police repossessed some 450 books from their car and launched a deeper investigation into their operation.

meeyoo@koreatimes.co.kr