[News Today] LATENIGHT PHONE THEFT ON SUBWAY

[LEAD]
Police arrested individuals who stole mobile phones from intoxicated subway passengers late at night. The stolen phones were then smuggled to Uzbekistan through an intermediary.

[REPORT]
A man approaches a person lying on the floor of a subway platform.

The man casually picks up a mobile phone on the bench and tries to wake up the unconscious person.

Here's another subway station.

A man gets on a train and sits next to a drunk person to steal his phone.

The police caught three men who have stolen mobile phones from drunk people at
subway stations late at night.

They are accused of stealing ten mobile phones from intoxicated people at subway platforms or inside the trains.

The stolen phones were handed over to an Uzbek man in his thirties known as A who smuggled them out of the country.

The Uzbek suspect, an illegal immigrant, is accused of purchasing those ten phones at roughly two million won, about 1,400 U.S. dollars, and smuggling them out to Uzbekistan through merchants.

The police raided the scene where one thief was selling the stolen phones to the Uzbek man to catch them in the act.

"We apprehend you at the scene for receiving stolen goods."

After further investigations, police officers caught two more men who had also stolen the mobile phones.

Out of the three men accused of stealing mobile phones, two were arrested for theft and the Uzbek suspect who smuggled the phones to Uzbekistan was also arrested for the acquistion of stolen goods.

The police warned that people need to be more careful when riding subways towards the year end as there are more occasions to drink.