Today’s dish is drunk driving — with a side of someone else’s car

South Korea is really safe.

And also dangerous.

The case I brought this time is

drunk driving.
It shouldn’t be common, but it is actually very common.

But this is a rather unusual case of drunk driving.
He drove while drunk in a car belonging to a complete stranger??

How did he even drive a stranger’s car??

There was a key inside the car.
The car was a BMW.

Just how safe is this country that the owner could leave the BMW key inside the car and walk away?

What a great country.


This is how the incident begins.

At around 11:30 p.m. on the 19th, in Bundang-gu, Seongnam,
a man identified as A,
completely drunk,
got into a car and drove out of the parking lot.

He then drove drunk for about 10 kilometers.

But this wasn’t actually his car??

After realizing that the car was missing, the owner immediately reported it to the police,
and the police, who tracked the vehicle,

found A about an hour later, at around 12:40 a.m. on the 20th,
near the Jukjeon Bus Stop on the Gyeongbu Expressway, in the direction of Busan, in Yongin.

Apparently, he was sleeping soundly inside the car.

He was immediately arrested and given a breathalyzer test,

and apparently stated that he thought the car was his.


How much do you have to drink to the point where you can’t even recognize your own car…

Impressive.

As for the drunk driving,
he was tested and a blood alcohol level was recorded,
so he will be punished for drunk driving accordingly.

The question is whether A’s actions constitute theft or not..

You might say,
“He drove someone else’s car for about 10 kilometers without permission. If that’s not theft, then what is?”

But I actually covered a case related to this before.

I’ll explain it briefly here so you don’t even have to click the link.

For the crime of theft to be established,
there must be an intention to make the property your own.

“I only intended to use it for a little while.”
This already creates a legal issue.

But what did A say?

“I thought it was my car..”
Yes, this now seems to come down to whether it is theft or the unlawful use of a motor vehicle.

In fact, singer Shin Hye-sung went through a similar incident as well.

They will look at whether A’s car was actually very similar to that car,
and whether the locations where the cars were parked were also similar.

If A’s car had been above ground at the time,
while the car he mistakenly drove away in had been parked underground,

then even if the cars were similar,

A’s claim could lose credibility.


Conversely, if A’s car were basically a tank
while the car he mistakenly drove away in were an ordinary passenger car,

it would also be difficult to conclude that the mistake was understandable.

We’ll have to wait and see what happens,

but one thing is for sure:
A probably won’t be driving drunk again.