Drunk man urinates on convenience store shelf, flees without buying anything

A drunk man was caught on camera urinating on a convenience store shelf before walking out. The store owner has since filed a police report against him.

According to JTBC's "Sageon Banjang," a TV crime-news program that aired Monday, a store owner identified only as A submitted surveillance footage from her convenience store in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

The footage was captured by the store's closed-circuit television camera in the early hours of Saturday.

According to A, when the visibly intoxicated man entered the store, a staff member moved to the checkout counter. The man then walked toward the shelves and acted without warning.

In the video, the man urinated in front of a shelf, then shook himself off. He straightened his clothes, did a stretch, and left the store without purchasing anything.

A staff member who noticed something wet on the products assumed someone had spilled water and cleaned the shelf and floor.

The employee informed A when she arrived in the morning. A handled the wet products to check whether they could still be sold. That evening, while reviewing the CCTV footage, she saw the man urinating.

"I was handling those products so much, wondering if they could be dried out," A said. "The moment I saw that footage, I don't know how many times I washed my hands."

A said she had worked in retail for eight years but had never experienced anything like this. She estimated the damage to products at around 500,000 won ($374). She said she hired a cleaning company to sanitize and disinfect the area, and has reported the man to police.

Attorney Seung Jae-hyun said he could not understand why anyone would do such a thing in a store used by the public when public restrooms are available. He said the owner could pursue civil damages. "In criminal terms, public indecency and public urination charges could be considered, and destruction of property charges could certainly apply," he said, adding that the man should be prepared to face criminal punishment as well.