Incident occurred last month in underground parking garage of Siheung apartment complex in Gyeonggi Province, where driver had briefly stopped her vehicle

Not directly related to the article. [Image generated by AI]
Not directly related to the article. [Image generated by AI]

A male resident of an apartment complex has been sued for insult after verbally abusing and threatening a young female delivery driver who had briefly double-parked in the building's underground garage.

SBS reported that the incident took place in August in the underground parking garage of an apartment complex in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province. A male resident, angered by a delivery vehicle that had been double-parked, unleashed a torrent of abuse the moment the young-looking driver appeared.

In footage of the incident, the resident screamed a string of expletives at the driver, demanding to know how she could park that way and cursing her repeatedly.

As the startled driver began reversing to clear the way, the man pulled his car up close behind her, then got out and banged on her vehicle. "Are you trying to start something?" he shouted. When she asked what she had done wrong, he yelled that she needed to reverse further so he could get out.

The driver called police after feeling her safety was at risk, at which point the man hurriedly moved his car and left the scene.

The driver said the apartment complex has limited parking and receives frequent requests for quick deliveries, and that the confrontation erupted after she had stopped for only about two minutes.

"He just unleashed a barrage of insults at me and came at me in a really threatening way," she told the outlet. "I thought there was enough room for him to turn around and get out, but he looked like he could kill me at any moment — I was terrified and on edge."

She also expressed frustration that she believed she had been targeted because of her appearance. "When my male team leader went there, nothing like this ever happened," she said. "If it had been a male driver, I think he would have just said, 'Please move your car,' without any cursing. It's because anyone could see I was a young, skinny girl doing deliveries."

The driver, who said she is 19 years old, was so shaken by the incident that she requested a change of delivery zone and filed a complaint against the man for insult.

Attorney Song Ji-won, who reviewed the closed-circuit television footage from the parking garage, said there were sufficient grounds to consider charges of intimidation and assault as well. "There is legal precedent establishing that shouting at someone to frighten them constitutes assault, even without physical contact," Song said.

Online commenters poured criticism on the man, calling the incident "a textbook case of picking on the weak," questioning whether he would have acted the same way toward a large male driver, and saying, "What are you doing to a young person just trying to make a living?" Others called for him to be punished, saying he needed to "meet his match" before he would learn his lesson, and noted that there appeared to be enough room to pass without any confrontation.


jshan@heraldcorp.com