Aged couple kidnapped from villa and robbed

Seocho Police Precinct in Seoul yesterday arrested a trio of burglars on charges of kidnapping an aged couple who stayed in a villa in the countryside and extorted 300 million won ($265,000) from them.

According to the police, around 9:30 p.m. on May 10, the burglar trio led by a 36-year-old man surnamed Kim broke into an idyllic house in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi, on the eastern outskirts of Seoul, and kidnapped the dwellers Park, 59, and Lee, 53, a couple who use the villa as a getaway from Seoul.

The next morning, the trio took the couple to Seoul by car. They forced Park to withdraw 150 million won out of each of two banks in Seocho District.

After taking the money, the trio released the couple and told them not to go to the police.

The police caught the burglars by tracking down their mobile phone communication records, as the trio talked to each other by phone near the villa. The police retrieved 298 million won.

According to the investigation, Kim planned the robbery after his live-in girlfriend, who is the daughter of the couple’s housekeeper, said her mother’s employers were very rich.

The trio told police they committed the robbery to repay gambling debts.

By Song Ji-hye [enational@joongang.co.kr]