Tag: crime

This is a pretty bad case of arson, fortunately no one was killed:

Vice Minister of the Interior and Safety Han Chang-seob, left, and Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok inspect the charred ruins of Hyundae Market in Dong District, Incheon on Sunday. [YONHAP]

A man detained Sunday morning on suspicion of starting a massive overnight blaze that burned down more than 50 stores in an Incheon market set fire to five different locations inside and near the market, according to police.  
   
The suspect, whom the Incheon Jungbu Police Precinct described only as a man in his 40s, is accused of starting three fires inside the Hyeondae Market in Songnim-dong, Dong District, at around 11:38 p.m. the previous day.  
   
Police said closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage recorded by street cameras outside the market showed the man also setting fire to garbage awaiting collection next to a church outside the market, then to a small cargo truck parked nearby.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

If this guy is a career criminal why do they keep letting him out? Age should not play into this if he keeps committing crimes:

The Supreme Court has upheld the 1 1/2-year prison sentence for Cho Se-hyeong, an 85-year-old notorious burglar, convicted of stealing again just a month after being released from prison, court officials said Saturday. 

In January 2022, Cho was arrested for stealing precious items worth 27.5 million won (US$21,020) from a luxury country home in Yongin, 40 kilometers south of Seoul.

He was initially sentenced to two years in prison by a lower court. An appellate court later reduced the sentence to 1 1/2 years considering his age, health and circumstances. (…..)

Cho gained notoriety in the 1970s and 80s as the “Great Thief” for his tendency to rob only wealthy and powerful individuals, and use some of the stolen money for charitable purposes. 

The burglar was imprisoned multiple times in the 1970s, and in 1982, he received a 15-year prison sentence for stealing from the homes of wealthy people and high-ranking officials.

After his release, Cho claimed to have turned his life around and was involved in missionary work and served as an adviser to a security company. 

However, he was caught burglarizing an empty house in Tokyo in 2001 and imprisoned five more times later in and near Seoul — for theft in 2005, 2013, 2015 and 2019, and for arranging the dealings of stolen goods in 2010.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip comes news that quite possibly the most infamous criminal in USFK history has passed away at age 50 in West Virginia:

Kenneth Lee “Kennet” Markle, III, 50, of Keyser, WV, died Tuesday, February 14, 2023 in Keyser.

Born on June 7, 1972 in Wurzburg, Germany, he was a son of Kenneth L. Markle, Jr. and Helen M. “Mickey” (Hickey) Markle, of Keyser. He was preceded in death by an infant brother, Jarrod Markle and his grandparents, Kenneth L. Markle, Sr., Wanda P. Markle and John and Edith Hickey.

Kennet was a 1990 graduate of Keyser High School and was employed as a project manager in the cellular communications industry. He was an avid Pittsburgh Steelers fan.

Tribute Archive

For those that don’t know who Kenneth Markle is, I recommend reading my below prior posting about him:

GI Flashbacks: The 1992 Private Kenneth Markle Murder Case

I also recommend reading the below prior posting where Markle’s alleged ex-girlfriends describe what he is like in the comments section:

Convicted USFK Murderer Speaks Out

I have actually met Markle before when he was still being held in the foreigner prison down in Cheonan. He was the person that used to pick up the mail from people that would go and check up on the prisoners there. He was actually very polite when I interacted with him. However, since his release from Korean prison in 2006 he went on to continue a life of crime in West Virginia:

Two Mineral County men were arrested Monday when they were served arrest warrants by Keyser Police at two locations.

Kenneth Lee Markle, 44, of Keyser, was charged with 24 counts of nighttime burglary and 74 counts of unauthorized use of a debit card, police said.

Markle was arrested at a North Water Street residence late Monday and granted pre-trial release after posting $15,000 bond, police said. 

Cumberland Times-News

Markle actually contacted me a few years after he got out claiming his innocence and that if I read the court transcripts I would understand he was not a murderer. I offered to post the complete transcripts on the ROK Drop and he never sent them to me. His side of the story is that he hit the victim in the head with a coke bottle after she attacked him and was alive when left the room. He claims someone else killed her and violated her body. He told himself that bogus story for so long he probably actually believed it after a while.

Judging by this collage of mugshots that ROK Drop commenter Chickenhead has put together, I would not be surprised that besides being a thief that Markle was a meth-head as well:

This officially closes the chapter on Kenneth Markle and hopefully those impacted by his crimes get some solace that he will not be able to victimize anyone else ever again.

This is pretty atrocious police work and makes you wonder if even today how well these criminals with ankle monitors are being tracked:

A Seoul court on Wednesday ordered the state to pay more than 200 million won (US$162,500) in compensation to family members of a woman killed after an attempted rape by a man wearing an ankle monitor for sexual crimes.

In 2012, the woman in her 30s was murdered by Seo Jin-hwan, who broke into her house in Seoul’s Gwangjin district in an attempt to rape her. It was only later found out by police that Seo had committed a similar crime just 13 days earlier and that he was wearing an electronic ankle monitor at the time.

The family then filed a compensation suit against the state, claiming Seo’s crime could have been prevented if police had properly managed DNA evidence found from the previous crime scene and if his ankle bracelet had been properly monitored.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I just don’t understand how idiots like this guy think they are going to get away with doing dumb things like this:

This screenshot from an All Nippon News report shows security camera footage from a car dealer in Iwakuni, Japan, Dec. 3, 2022. (ANN)

A U.S. Marine has met with and apologized to the owner of a vehicle that was stolen and then crashed last month outside this base near Hiroshima, according to a local media report. 

The Marine, who has not been identified by local authorities or the Marine Corps, spent nearly two hours with the victim on Thursday, the local Chugoku newspaper reported the next day. In addition to apologizing, he promised to pay for any damages, the report said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I can’t stand people who leave graffiti everywhere. It is great to see the Koreans were able to get him extradited. Too bad they don’t do canings in Korea for graffiti like they do in Singapore:

A suibway car with graffiti. A 27 year-old American and a 28 year-old Italian is suspected of painting the cars last year. [iNCHEON TRANSIT CORPORATION]

The Incheon District Court on Friday started reviewing an arrest warrant request for a 27-year old American accused of breaking into subway garages and spray-painting graffiti on trains last year.    
   
The unnamed American was extradited to Korea on Wednesday from Romania. An Interpol red notice was issued and on Nov. 12, and the American was arrested by local police in Romania.    
   
The American covered his face with a baseball hat, glasses and a face mask in his court appearance Friday.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This drunken idiot gets to experience the full extent of the Korean court system:

A member of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) has been arrested after beating up a taxi driver so badly that the victim could not work for a number of days, according to the police in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province on Sunday.

The aggressor’s attack was recorded by a black-box video camera installed inside the taxi at about 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 27. He threw punches at the victim, who is 58 years old, using both arms as the driver took the beating whilst trying to guard his head with his hands.

The American then returned to Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, right across the road from where the incident happened. The aggressor left his wallet on the back seat of the taxi, where his identification card was found. Officers from Seongnam Sujeong Police Station arrived at the scene after the soldier fled the scene. The authorities said that they will call in the aggressor to the police station for questioning.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the assault happened after the Soldiers credit card was declined for payment. The driver for his part is smartly playing up his injuries as much as possible trying to get as much money from the U.S. military as he can.

With this new policy kids at the age of 13 can spend time in jail instead of youth correction centers:

 The age of criminal responsibility will be lowered by one year from the current 14, the Ministry of Justice said Wednesday, announcing measures to cope with an increasing number of serious crimes committed by juveniles.

The ministry said it will revise the criminal and juvenile laws to lower the criminal age limit to be able to charge youths criminally from the age of 13.

Currently, minors under the age of 14 cannot be convicted of a crime in South Korea. If such children commit offenses, they are referred to community service programs or youth correction institutions.

Under the soon-to-be revised laws, 13-year-old middle school first or second grade students, for instance, will be subject to criminal punishment if they commit a crime.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Can you idiots stop trying to smuggle drugs through the U.S. mail? How many people have to get caught before they realize this has been tried before and doesn’t work?:

A Japanese man has been sentenced to 13 years in prison and fined about $35,000 for leading a ring that smuggled illegal narcotics into Japan through the U.S. military postal system on Okinawa.

Ken Kominami, 30, who is unemployed and has no fixed address, was first arrested in October 2021 after Japanese police were tipped off to a potential drug-smuggling ring by the U.S. military, a spokesman for Okinawa prefectural police’s organized crime department told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday.

Prosecutors said Kominami and nine others imported approximately five pounds of cocaine, two liters of cannabis liquid and nearly four ounces of cannabis flower from unnamed individuals in the United States, a spokeswoman from the Naha District Prosecutors Office said by phone Tuesday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the arrests included a DA civilian and Marine who were sent to jail for their idiocy.

It is pretty amazing that after all these years the police were able to make an arrest in regards to this bank heist:

On Dec. 21, 2001, an employee of a KB Kookmin Bank was fatally shot in the parking lot of one of its branches in Daejeon, and the two men involved took off with 300 million won ($223,000).    
   
More than two decades later, police have arrested the suspects.    
   
On Saturday, the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency said they identified the suspects using DNA samples taken from the crime scene and requested arrest warrants for two men on charges of murder and robbery. 

The Daejeon District Court issued arrest warrants on the same day for the two suspects, citing the risk of them fleeing or destroying evidence.  
   
Around 10 a.m. on the day of the crime, one of the suspects shot the 43-year-old bank manager surnamed Kim in the underground parking lot of Kookmin Bank’s Dunsan Branch in Daejeon’s Seo District. The bank robbers took off in a black vehicle with the bag of cash.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.