Gangnam Bank Heist Suspect Arrested

The police arrested the suspect of a bank robbery case, a Mr. Jeong (30), at 5:00 p.m. on October 22, the third day from the date of the robbery. He was allegedly involved in the armed robbery at the Gold and Wise Private Banking Center of the Gangnam Station Branch of Kookmin Bank in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul on October 20.

The Gangnam Police Station of Seoul announced that Jeong was caught in an internet cafe located near Indeokwon Intersection in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province and that he had been transported to the station and was undergoing investigation.

Jeong, who was wanted on various charges including fraud, had spent 6.0 million won of the 105 million won he had stolen and the remainder of the money was kept in his motel room. The police confiscated his revolver and 22 live cartridges.

The police obtained the phone number of the “daepo phone” he was using and located him through global positioning system (GPS). A daepo-phone is a mobile phone opened in other people’s names and is usually used by criminals or people on a blacklist for bad credit.

The police were informed by a witness of the armed robbery at a shooting gallery in Mok-dong, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul on October 18 that “the suspects of the two robberies are the same” and used the fact that the suspect had called the shooting gallery with a daepo-phone to track his location.

According to results of the police investigation, Jeong bought this phone on October 17 through the Internet and had it delivered to a “M” Hotel in Songpa-gu, Seoul and had lived in a nearby motel for the last two months.

dnsp@donga.com