It was reported that teenagers who bought cigarettes at a convenience store extorted money from the store owner and staff, saying they would report it to the police.
According to Yonhap News on the 20th, a man bought cigarettes at a convenience store in Dong-gu, Gwangju on the 15th and returned to the convenience store with other men shortly after.
One of the group claimed to be the cousin of the student who bought the cigarettes, and threatened the employee, saying, “Why are you selling cigarettes to a minor?”
When the employee did not respond, they showed the courage to actually report the convenience store to the police. Even so, he pressed, “I will cancel the report if you give me the money even now.” In the end, those who took 200,000 won from the employee canceled the report and left the convenience store.
Their crimes did not stop there. On the same night, he entered another convenience store and threatened the convenience store clerk with the same method to extort 500,000 won in cash. On the 17th, he reported to the police a convenience store in Buk-gu, Gwangju that did not give out cash despite threats. It is said that they toured 6 convenience stores in two days, extorted a total of 700,000 won from two of them, and reported 4 convenience stores.
A police official said, “Five people committed crimes by going around convenience stores around Gwangju as a team, and two of them were scheduled to be sent to juvenile detention centers for special robbery.” scheduled,” he said.
The current Juvenile Protection Act only penalizes business owners who sell cigarettes to teenagers and does not punish minors who purchase cigarettes. Businesses that sell cigarettes to teenagers can even be suspended from business, so store owners say in unison that they “feel like walking on thin ice.”
In 2019-2020, the government amended related regulations so that business owners who sold cigarettes after being deceived by forged or altered IDs could avoid punishment. However, in order to prevent the deviant and crimes of teenagers that continue to occur,토토사이트 there are voices calling for direct sanctions on the act of purchasing cigarettes itself.
In the National Assembly, in December 2020, Rep. Seong-min Park, etc., proposed a partial amendment to the Youth Protection Act, which requires youth who purchase cigarettes and alcohol to complete social service and special education, but it has been pending in the relevant committee for the third year.