Caught with Someone Else’s iPad: Am I a Thief or Just a Forgetful Finder
Man Found Not Guilty of Embezzling Lost iPad in Second Trial
A man in his 50s, who was taken to trial for keeping an iPad that someone else had lost for over a month, was found not guilty in both the first and second trials.
The Suwon High Court Criminal Division 1 (Judges Moon Ju-hyung, Kim Min-sang, and Kang Young-jae) announced that it had found Mr. A, who was indicted on charges of embezzlement of lost property, not guilty, as in the original trial.
The court ruled, “If we examine closely the evidence that the lower court legally adopted and examined, the lower court’s decision to find the defendant not guilty is justified,” and “It is difficult to see that the defendant embezzled lost property with the intention of keeping it for himself without the intention of returning it when he acquired it.”
According to the court, Mr. A was indicted on charges of embezzling property that had been taken from Mr. B’s possession without returning it and taking the iPad worth 1 million won that he had lost on a badminton court bench in the apartment complex on the afternoon of November 7, 2022.
The police who received the report at the time checked the CCTV footage and found that they had visited Mr. A’s house on December 21 of the same year.
Person B claimed during the police investigation that the name tag and photos of his dog attached to the iPad had been removed, and that this did not appear to be the actions of someone who intended to return the iPad.
However, the court ruled that there was no objective evidence submitted to prove whether Mr. A had a picture of his dog attached to the iPad when he acquired it, and that it was difficult to conclude that the defendant had tried to directly unlock the password but failed or deleted the data based solely on the victim’s statement.
Also, on December 30th of the same year, the defendant’s spouse posted a comment on the victim’s post about the loss of the iPad, saying, “Time has passed because I was so anxious. Please contact me and I will discuss how to deliver it.”
Considering that the iPad was arbitrarily submitted to the police in February 2023, there was no evidence that the victim’s request for its return was refused or avoided.
Suwon = Reporter Lee Young-gyun lyg0203@segye.com