Customer who planted hair in tteokbokki for 5,000-won refund caught on CCTV

A customer who planted her own hair in a bowl of tteokbokki to demand a refund has been exposed by surveillance footage. The refund she walked away with amounted to just 5,000 won.

JTBC's crime affairs program "Sageon Banjang" aired the story and tip-off video Monday, submitted by vendor A, who runs a street food stall inside a traditional market in Seoul.

According to A, a female customer ordered tteokbokki shortly before closing time on Wednesday.

After finishing most of the dish, the customer called A over and complained that she had found a hair in the tteokbokki, demanding a refund.

A issued the refund and apologized repeatedly, but the customer continued to show irritation and displeasure.

Suspicious, A reviewed the CCTV footage after the customer left and caught her on camera pulling out her own hair and placing it in the bowl.

In the footage aired on the program, the customer repeatedly glanced around before pulling out a folded tissue mid-meal. She unfolded what appeared to be a tissue used to carry the hair, then looked down at the floor as the contents fell. She then plucked a strand of her own hair, adjusted its length, and dropped it into the tteokbokki bowl.

A said the refunded amount was 5,000 won and that the customer had already eaten most of the dish, leaving only three or four pieces of rice cake.

"I got chills seeing how calculated she was," A said, adding that concern for other vendors in the market prompted the tip-off.

Attorney Park Ji-hoon, who reviewed the footage, said the scheme was clearly premeditated. "It looks like the tteokbokki cost 50,000 won or 100,000 won. It was 5,000 won," he said. "This is far too calculated — it must be treated as willful obstruction of business. It is a crime. This is something that must never be done."