A Woman's Apartment Invaded Through Plumbing... Aging Villas Are Crime 'Blind Spots'

Touring Dense Row House Areas
Most Security Covers Not Installed
Owners Reluctant to Install Due to Cost Issues

'Aged Houses' Targeted in the Crime

On the 2nd, the prosecution demanded a 30-year prison sentence for a man in his 30s, Mr. A, who was indicted for secretly entering the home of a woman living alone through a gas pipe and attempting sexual assault. Mr. A roamed around Guwol-dong, Namdong-gu, Incheon, identifying houses where women lived alone. He then broke into the second floor of a villa where a woman in her 20s, Ms. B, lived through the gas pipe and confined her for about seven hours. It was confirmed that villas with gas pipes installed on the exterior walls were targeted in the crime.

As crimes involving intrusion into villas and one-room apartments with low ceiling heights by climbing gas pipes installed on building exteriors have occurred repeatedly, concerns about residential safety are rising. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport mandates that small-scale multi-family housing also comply with the 'Crime Prevention Architectural Standards' notice to incorporate security design. However, aged villas built before the revision of the notice are not subject to these standards, leaving them in a blind spot for crime prevention.

Current Multi-Family Housing 'Crime Prevention Architectural Standards' Excluding Aged Houses

A multi-family villa in Anam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, on the 3rd. Gas pipes extend surrounding the window frame.
[Photo by Lee Ji-eun]

On the 3rd, after inspecting 50 aged multi-family villas and row houses in Anam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, it was found that most buildings had gas pipes protruding from the ground level to the window frames, exposed on the exterior walls. Some houses had multiple gas pipes tangled from the first floor extending to the windows, allowing one to reach the second-floor window in just three steps. Not a single house had installed spiked security covers on the pipes to prevent external intrusion.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport expanded the application of the Crime Prevention Architectural Standards notice in 2019 to include small-scale housing, requiring building exteriors to be designed to minimize elements that could be used for external intrusion from a crime prevention perspective.

According to the notice, when installing vertically extending pipes or heating and cooling equipment, building owners must equip preventive facilities to prevent outsiders from climbing up to the second floor or descending from the rooftop. The Building Act also mandates that building owners apply crime prevention design techniques when constructing multi-family housing.

Some local governments have gone a step further by separately enforcing ordinances requiring the installation of spiked security covers. These covers are installed from the first floor up to 2 meters high, deterring external intruders from climbing the exterior walls. Since 2018, Osan City in Gyeonggi Province has required the installation of security covers on gas pipes from the design submission stage for building permits for small-scale multi-family residential buildings. Similarly, Gwangjin-gu in Seoul established and has enforced security facility installation standards for gas pipes since 2015.

'300,000 to 400,000 KRW per Building'... Aged House Owners Hesitate Due to Cost Burden

On the 3rd, a gas pipe of a multi-family villa in Anam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, extends along the exterior wall of the building from the ground surface.
Photo by Lee Ji-eun

The problem lies with aged houses. Older villas built before the Ministry's notice have gas pipes exposed in a way that is vulnerable to security breaches, but there is no proper way to address this. Local government ordinances also apply only to new buildings, leaving the security issues of aged villa exteriors entirely dependent on the individual will of building owners.

However, building owners are reluctant to install security covers on pipes due to cost concerns. A representative from a security cover manufacturing company said, "Installing covers on gas pipes costs at least 300,000 to 400,000 KRW per building. Some new buildings in certain areas install security covers to obtain building permits, but owners of aged villas hesitate to bear the cost for tenants who may leave at any time."

Therefore, there are calls for separate support at the local government level targeting aged villas. Some local governments are using their own budgets to install crime prevention facilities on the exteriors of aged villas. Since 2014 until June last year, Seongnam City in Gyeonggi Province invested a total of 985 million KRW to apply special fluorescent substances to urban gas pipes and air conditioner outdoor units in 6,466 single-family and multi-family homes. This is to quickly track suspects through fluorescent substances left on clothing in the event of a crime. Gangbuk-gu installed 112 intrusion detection devices in 37 households vulnerable to residential safety in January to prevent climbing the exterior walls via gas pipes.

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