SEOUL, Jan. 6 (Korea Bizwire) – An online posting claiming that a mother and her daughter verbally abused three parking attendants and made them kneel is brewing controversy in Korean society. The incident took place at Hyundai Department Store’s underground parking lot in Jungdong, Bucheon.
On January 3, the story was posted online by an individual who is alleged to be the sister of one of the parking attendants. She wrote that two Hyundai Department Store customers, a mother and her daughter, ignored instructions from the poster’s brother, and made him kneel to the ground in the store’s underground parking lot.
Image courtesy of an Internet community which covered the issue
She also wrote that the daughter,who appeared to be in her twenties, verbally abused her brother and slapped him in the face while asking to speak to his superior. She attached a picture of a man kneeling in what appeared to be anunderground parking lot. She also added in the post that three more parking attendants were also made to kneel by the two customers. The story with the picture went viral on SNS, and stirred up the rage of netizens.
Hyundai Department Store went through CCTV footage from the time of the incident,and said that the mother, who had finished shopping, got in and started her car, but took her timein pulling outto wait for her daughter. A parking attendant ran up to the side of her car and waved his/her fist at her. This infuriated her, and as soon as her daughter arrived, theywent to find the parking attendant. The customers thenforced the attendant to kneel in apology.
The firm managing Hyundai Department Store’s parking lot also said that the parking attendant admitted his/her fault to the customers at the time of the incident. However, the two customers made three more attendants kneel, too. According to the store, the mother and daughter pushed the attendants on their chests,but never slapped them in face. The attendant who made a fist quit voluntarily after the incident.
The store and the firm both said that the footage indeed showed that the attendant made a fist. The story’s original poster deleted itafter three series of modifications. The poster wrote that the story is indeed speculative in some part, since it was based on eyewitnesses and pictures.
The poster also wrote that s/he never intended to start a witch hunt,nor file a suit against the two customers, but only wanted to raise the question ofwhether their actions were appropriate or not. The poster wrote that although the attendant’s action was wrong, making four attendants kneel for two seemed likean excessive course of action. They also demanded that netizens stop posting speculative accusations.
By J.W. Choi (summerchoi@koreabizwire.com)
