Three European scouts busted for shoplifting in Seoul

A 119 ambulance

Three foreign scouts have been detained in Seoul on suspicion of shoplifting, local police said Tuesday.

All three scouts are male teenagers from an unspecified European country, according to the Seoul Gangnam Police Precinct.

The precinct said police officers took the trio into custody on Monday after they walked off with trousers and socks worth approximately 100,000 won ($74) from a clothing store inside the Starfield Coex Mall in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul.

Police officers were dispatched to the mall after receiving a call from the shop’s employees. Officers apprehended the three teenagers shortly afterward during their search of the mall.

After they were caught, the scouts told officers that they disposed of the stolen goods in a bathroom.

The scouts are scheduled to depart Korea on Aug. 23.

All three are over the age of 14 and thus can be legally prosecuted under Korean law.

But an official at the Seoul Gangnam Police Precinct said that police “will conduct a quick investigation” to allow the three scouts “to return home according to their scheduled departure date.”

Meanwhile, police in Daejeon said on Tuesday that they have launched an investigation into the alleged misuse of an ambulance during last week’s hurried evacuation from the Jamboree campsite.

The incident first came to public awareness after a photo of emergency personnel unloading scouts’ luggage from an ambulance was posted to an online community forum.

It was then reported to local police through e-People, the petition portal of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission.

In a statement issued Monday, the Korean Government Employees’ Union called the use of ambulances to transport scouts’ luggage “a dangerous act that endangers the lives of people.”

But the Daejeon Fire Service explained that the ambulance was used to move luggage because the scouts’ bus was too big to enter the road leading up to their assigned dormitory and that they would have been forced to drag their luggage approximately 300 meters (984 feet) had the ambulances not been used.

“The ambulance in question had already been stationed in front of the dormitory in case of an accident. Emergency personnel at the scene helped move the scouts’ luggage voluntarily and out of concern for their safety, and not because they were told to do so,” the agency said.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]