Caught swapping a fake watch after claiming to buy a 4 billion won timepiece...

Fake product exposed, leading to 112 emergency call instead

A gang that pretended to buy luxury watches worth 4 billion KRW secondhand and swapped them with counterfeits was caught by the police.

On the 13th, the Gangnam Police Station in Seoul announced that they had arrested four people, including A, a man in his 30s who operates a luxury store in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, and B, a staff member in his 20s, on charges of special theft, and were investigating one accomplice who was booked without detention.

They are accused of receiving six "Richard Mille" watches from C, a Thai national who came to sell the watches around 4 p.m. on the 19th of last month, then entering the office under the pretext of taking photos and swapping the watches with pre-prepared counterfeits to steal them.

The police understood that one employee secretly took the genuine watches out and handed them to the gang waiting outside the store. The six stolen watches are worth 4 billion KRW based on the genuine price.

They placed the counterfeit watches they brought out from the office and suggested to C, "Let's appraise whether these are genuine." When the appraisal revealed they were counterfeits, they instead reported C to the police. Because of this, the victim was arrested on the day of the incident on charges of fraud as a flagrant offender.

During the investigation of C, the police confirmed circumstances indicating that he was actually the victim of the swapping and arrested five gang members on the 6th, detaining four including A. The arrest warrant for the remaining one was dismissed by the court due to minor involvement.

It was investigated that they conspired to commit the crime after building trust through a previous transaction with the victim recently.

The police seized one genuine Richard Mille watch in their possession and are tracking the whereabouts of the remaining five.

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