Ex-wife breaks into home, flips off CCTV — fined just 30,000 won

A man has shared his account of how his ex-wife broke into his home without permission and made an obscene gesture at a security camera — only to receive a fine of 30,000 won ($224).

The story of A, a man raising two children on his own on Jeju Island, was featured on JTBC's "Sageon Banjang" on Wednesday.

Four years after his divorce, A said he had stayed in Seoul with his children for about five months starting in April due to work obligations.

One day while he was in Seoul, a CCTV alert suddenly went off from his Jeju Island home. When he checked the footage, he saw a woman climbing through a laundry room window and moving through the interior of the house.

The woman turned on a light in one of the rooms, then faced the camera and filmed it with her phone. As she made her way back toward the laundry room, she turned to the living room camera and flipped it off.

The intruder turned out to be A's ex-wife, identified as B. At the time, B had filed a custody-related lawsuit against A, claiming he had taken their children to Seoul without her consent.

A reported B to police for trespassing, but the case was resolved with only a summary fine of 30,000 won — with authorities citing the absence of stolen or damaged property and the brevity of her time inside the home.

"I don't know why she broke in, and I never received an apology," A said. "I've finished my work in Seoul and returned to Jeju Island, but I'm so anxious about when she might break in again and what she might do that I can't sleep at night."