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(LEAD) Suspect caught in credit cooperative heist

All News 16:36 January 18, 2018

(ATTN: RECASTS with updates on suspect arrest and other details throughout)

ULSAN, Jan. 18 (Yonhap) -- Police said Thursday they arrested the suspect in an armed robbery at a local branch of a community credit cooperative earlier in the day.

Ulsan Dongbu Police Station said they have taken a 49-year-old man into custody, who ran off with 110 million won (US$102,800) in cash after robbing a local branch of the Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives in the same city, about 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul, at around 8 a.m.

They caught him at a motel in Geoje, a port city in the country's southern tip, around 2:30 p.m., the police said. Geoje is about a two-hour drive from Ulsan.

The stolen money has been recovered intact, they added.

Joint police forces from both cities chased him based on surveillance footage and they discovered he had driven down to Geoje in a sedan.

The suspect will be transferred to Ulsan and undergo questioning before being brought with charges.

The incident happened in the morning when the suspect, wearing a black headscarf and a jumper, suddenly approached an employee and threatened him at knifepoint to hand him over the cash bundles. The suspect tied the staff's hands and locked him in a room before taking off with the cash.

He has apparently told police that he worked for shipyard subcontractors in the two cities and has been under financial strain.

This photo taken Jan. 18, 2018 shows the Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives branch in Ulsan that was robbed earlier in the morning. (Yonhap)

This photo taken Jan. 18, 2018 shows the Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives branch in Ulsan that was robbed earlier in the morning. (Yonhap)

elly@yna.co.kr
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