SEOUL - A 41-year-old man working at Incheon International Airport has been indicted on charges of stealing 366 million won (S$378,000) worth of items from passenger luggage, local prosecutors said on Nov 28.

The man has been indicted on 208 accounts of larceny from November 2021 to Oct 6, said the Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office.

The man, who is not named, is accused of taking high-end bags, jewellery and other expensive items from passenger luggage while working as a baggage handler in the airport’s terminals. 

Police caught the man after investigating reports from passengers who lost their belongings, including one passenger’s claim about a lost Hermes bag worth 40 million won.

The man told the police that he spent the money he made from reselling the items on living expenses.

His job was to load bags into plane cargo holds for a local airline subcontractor. He allegedly stole the items during the smoke breaks of the five other employees he worked with.

To avoid being caught, the man took only a couple of items from each piece of luggage in spots without surveillance cameras.

The lack of surveillance footage has hindered the investigations. However, officials traced the whereabouts of employees working at the company, after having received multiple reports of missing items and managed to find that one of them had left the airport with some of the stolen goods.

Police raided the man’s office, home and car, confiscating 218 stolen items. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK