Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Randall Flagg]

Yesterday was quite an eventful day for a group of us who work in the Yeonhui dong area. At around 6pm I was awoken from a deep, hangover induced slumber by the sounds of a crying coworker. She sounded more than just a little upset so I got dressed and went out to investigate. It seems someone stole her purse. She had accidently forgot it on top of her car. She walked up to her third floor apartment and then realized her mistake. She was gone maybe 30 seconds tops then went back out to her car only to find it had been removed. So now her passport, cell phone, credit cards and numerous other items are gone. About an hour and a half later I hear another commotion. I went outside to investigate. It was a locksmith trying to get into another coworker's apartment. Her key wouldn't work. The locksmith finally got in (after a huge screaming match with the landlady-she is crazy). It seems that this girls apartment had been broken into. The thief had climbed up the side of the building and entered her third floor apartment from the balcony. Also, another apartment in my building was broken into the same way. Nothing was taken either time which was lucky. After this our building has had 5 incidents of burglery in the last month. Some succesful and some not. You may remember a thread about locking your doors about a month ago. That incident occured in my building too.

Anyways, I don't really have any questions or advice. It just seems that crime is on the rise in Yeonhui dong. Either that or we are being targeted.

Oh yeah, while the police were here they said that there were also a few other break and enters in the neighborhood this weekend. While they were investigating my building there was another one reported nearby.

[Paji eh Wong]

My friend just had his second bike in two months stolen. And I keep hearing all of these other stories about theft ect.

What's going on?

[Zed]

The burglar climbed the outside of the building to the 3rd floor, broke in, and took nothing? Sexual predator perhaps or nothing of value?

[Randall Flagg]

Yeah, he (always assuming its a he) climbed up to the third floor. He gave the apartment a pretty thorough search. Her stuff was all messed up. She had an iPod laying out and it was not taken. The other apartment that got broken into yesterday was also on the third floor but is occupied by three Korean guys so that can maybe rule out the rapist theory. Hopefully. Maybe the guy heard people outside, got spooked and took off.

Earlier this month a coworker got robbed and the cops did virtually nothing. Now they seem to be taking a bit more of an active aproach. They had a fingerprint guy come in and look around. I don't know if he found any though.

I am kind of lucky though. My windows are all barred. Unfortunately the bars create an excellent ladder up to the apartment above me.

It never even occured to me that it could be a sexual predator. That makes it a lot more frightening. I don't think the victim has concidered it either. I don't think I will mention it. Don't want to scare her even more.

[Manner of Speaking]

About a year ago a guy broke into my place, because I left the window of my third floor apartment open. Cops came, told me always lock your windows when you go out. Kind of amazed me, because the outside of my building is pretty much just rough concrete, not many handholds. Kinda like getting burglarized by Dracula. :p

[toomuchtime]

These crimes were probably committed by foreigners.
Need any more proof than this?:

Crimes by foreigners in Korea rise sharply


With the number of crimes committed by foreigners increasing rapidly, more local people are becoming victims, a ruling party lawmaker claimed during the parliamentary audit and inspection of the National Policy Agency yesterday.
According to police statistics, the number of foreign criminals in Korea has been recording more than 20 percent annual growth. The number stood at about 3,400 in 2000 to 4,300 in 2001, 5,200 in 2002, and to 6,100 last year.

More than 5,000 foreigners were arrested during the first seven months of this year, an increase of 84 percent growth from the same period last year.

For five main crimes - murder, robbery, rape, theft and violence - the percentage of crimes committed by foreigners increased sharply from 0.66 percent in 2002, to 0.96 percent in July of this year.

Among the 7,550 crimes committed by foreigners from the period January through August, up to 85 percent were directed toward Koreans, victimizing local people, the agency said.

Data showing how the increase in crimes relates to increases in the foreign population in Korea wasn't immediately available.

Rep. Yoo Ihn-tae who had inspected the agency, said that the government needs to immediately come up with plans to prevent crimes by foreigners, especially since it was mostly local people who were becoming victims of these crimes.

A police agency official told the Korea Herald that most of these criminals were illegal visitors who are suffering desperately from economic hardship and having a difficult time adjusting to Korean society.

"In a way, these are crimes of hunger or anger. Some even said they committed crimes as a way of getting revenge on Koreans," he said.

He warned that some of these foreigners were beginning to organize in groups to commit bigger crimes.

"Since it is very likely that local people are in greater danger from these crimes, plans to prevent them must be made immediately," he said. "Also, the government must think of plans to help foreigners adjust to the society before they become desperate or angry enough to kill and steal."


(Gosh, I love the even and balanced reporting in Korean periodicals. Note the lack of statistics and supporting data for Korean crime? Let's focus our attention on how the immoral foreigners are victimizing us upright and law-abiding 'local people', instead)

[Randall Flagg]

One of the first things the cops said was that it is probably someone we know. He seemed to be implying that it would be a foreigner.

[Joce]

I don't really think it was a foreigner because over Chusok, one of the guys in our building caught a korean guy trying our doors in the middle of the night. He prolly heard from whoever took the money from my apartment that we're easy targets.

[Keepongoing]

in my apartment I have heard/seen my partment door being tried on a few occassions. Either people who live in this building or others. Once an older gentleman knocked on my door at 11:30 and asked if I was warm enough at night. Straaaaaaange!!!!!!!!! An odjima tried my dooor once and I swung it open. She apologized, stating she thought it was someone elses. I have one lock and am concerned about being away as it can't be that hard to pick the lock.

[Swiss James]

[Lizara]

Like three days after I moved into my apartment, I woke up around 2:30 one night and heard someone trying my door. Welcome to Korea. Then a month or two after that there was a guy looking in my window one night. I've been neurotically careful about locking my door every night since then.