A man in his 30s stole expensive wine worth 150,000 won by swapping price tags to pay only 10,000 won

Busanjin Police Station Investigates Man for Stealing 19 Bottles of Expensive Wine Worth 2.6 Million Won from Marts in Busan and Gyeongnam

A man in his 30s was caught on CCTV attaching a low-priced wine price tag to a premium wine bottle and self-checking out at an unmanned checkout counter in a large supermarket in Busan.
[Image source=Busan Police Agency]

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] A man in his 30s who ‘purchased’ expensive wine worth over 150,000 won by paying the price of cheap wine around 10,000 won was caught by the police.

The police have booked Mr. A, a man in his 30s who switched wine price tags to steal expensive wine, and are investigating him.

According to the Busanjin Police Station in Busan on the 9th, Mr. A is suspected of stealing a total of about 2.6 million won over 17 times by attaching cheap wine price tags to expensive wine bottles at five marts in Busan and Gyeongnam from September last year for 11 months.

Mr. A used a method of drying and removing the price tags of cheap wine around 10,000 won that he had purchased in the past, then secretly attaching them to expensive wine bottles worth over 150,000 won, and paying at self-checkout counters to avoid cashiers.

During the 11 months, Mr. A switched the prices on about 19 bottles of wine, and 11 bottles kept at his home were seized.

A staff member managing the wine corner at a large discount store in Busan noticed something strange in inventory management for a long time and reported it to the police, which exposed Mr. A’s criminal activities.

While reviewing CCTV footage, the police spotted a man in his 30s showing suspicious behavior.

Mr. A, who was lingering around the wine corner, suddenly took out a piece of paper from his pocket, attached it to an expensive wine bottle, went to the self-checkout counter, completed the payment, and disappeared.

Following the police’s pursuit, Mr. A was caught and booked. Under police questioning, Mr. A confessed, “I thought that if I left the price tags on the supply-type wine bottles in the sunlight for a long time, they would naturally come off, so I tried attaching them to expensive wine to pay.”

The police revealed that Mr. A drank about half of the expensive wine he stole, and seized the remaining wine worth about 1.1 million won stored at his home.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.