Man in his 20s who stole W500m in jewelry from hypermarket says raincoat would hide him

A man in his 20s who allegedly broke into a hypermarket in the early morning hours and stole jewelry worth 500 million won ($369,000) appeared in court Wednesday afternoon for a pretrial detention hearing.

The suspect, identified only as A, arrived at Incheon District Court in Michuhol-gu with his face concealed behind a hat and mask.

When reporters asked whether financial hardship had driven him to commit the crime, he said it had.

Asked why he had targeted a jewelry store inside a hypermarket, A said he had simply searched an online portal because he needed money, and the hypermarket jewelry store came up in the results, so he went there.

When asked whether he had planned the crime alone, he said, "Just by myself … " Asked whether he had believed wearing a raincoat would prevent him from being caught, he said yes.

The pretrial detention hearing began at 2 p.m. Wednesday. A ruling on whether to detain him was expected later that afternoon.

A is accused of stealing 173 gold bracelets — 14-karat and 18-karat — worth an estimated 500 million won from a jewelry store on the second floor of the Homeplus Ganseok branch in Namdong-gu, Incheon, at around 2:26 a.m. Monday.

Police tracked A down and arrested him on a street in Hwagok-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, at around 2:43 p.m. the same day — roughly 12 hours after the theft. All of the stolen jewelry was recovered.

Closed-circuit television footage from the time of the crime showed A entering the store wearing a hooded raincoat with his face covered by a mask.

He allegedly smashed the upper glass panel of a display case with a blunt object, collected the jewelry and fled by taxi. He spent about 10 minutes inside the store, with the actual theft taking roughly a minute and a half.

Both the hypermarket and the jewelry store had contracts with private security firms, but neither stopped A as he fled after committing the crime.

A review of his recent movements found that A had approached the hypermarket for the first time just before the crime, scouted the surrounding area and then entered through a window.

Police are continuing to investigate whether any accomplices were involved and whether A had inside help.