My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 607

“Ah~!”

In that situation, the ownership of the house naturally belonged to the brother. And no matter how much of a criminal’s family they were, you couldn’t seize the property of a third party.

“But why was it reported?”

“It wasn’t so much a report as something we found while checking the route.”

Securing the route was a natural part of finding the money, so they must have searched the place.

“And?”

“Well, it’s not in a condition for someone to live in, and there’s no place to hide money….”

“No one lives there?”

“It’s not quite a completely abandoned house. It was maintained, though.”

“But they didn’t sell it?”

“No, they didn’t sell it.”

“And the owner is in a nursing home?”

“What can you do when they have intellectual disabilities and dementia?”

So the police just gave up on it. But Park Do-joon could tell intuitively that was the place.

“Could I possibly get the address?”

# Hidden Money and the Truth

“There’s a place like this.”

The rather old house, located a bit away from the village, was well-maintained by all appearances. Park Do-joon clicked his tongue while looking around.

“It’s very well-maintained.”

“Yeah, but is there something here?”

“There is.”

Park Do-joon shook the gate. As expected, the locked gate didn’t open.

“Hoo-cha!”

But Park Do-joon didn’t hesitate and climbed over the fence.

Seeing that, Jung I-yeon was horrified.

“Oppa [an honorific term for older brother used by women], what are you doing! We don’t have a warrant here!”

“We didn’t come to search with a warrant in the first place, did we? Never mind. We won’t be able to find anything here that can be used in court.”

Park Do-joon went to the door and opened the gate, and Jung I-yeon came inside with a reluctant face.

“So what are you looking for here? No, what’s here?”

“That’s right.”

“Why?”

“As you can see, it’s well-maintained. Since the owner here has intellectual disabilities, he wouldn’t have maintained it.”

“That’s true.”

“The fact that it was maintained means someone else did. And you heard it too, they found it while checking the route.”

“They did.”

“That means Yoo Joon-seung directly managed it. Doesn’t that seem strange?”

“Huh?”

“Think about it. Yoo Joon-seung was a man who didn’t want to drive himself, so he always had a driver with him.”

In fact, he was capable enough to do that, and it wasn’t strange.

“I told you last time, right? People who climb high have no reason to endure [suffer hardships].”

“That’s right.”

“Does it make sense that such a person would come all the way here to manage it himself?”

“Huh?”

At those words, Jung I-yeon realized. Even they make sure their grandfather’s grave is clean every time they visit, but they don’t manage it themselves. They pay someone to take care of the weeding and maintenance.

“Look around here. Most of the houses are abandoned.”

“That can’t be helped in the countryside, can it? There are empty houses in the countryside these days.”

“That’s right. But you know what? They just leave those houses abandoned; they don’t maintain them.”

Because the house isn’t important anyway. In fact, even if houses in the countryside collapse due to lack of maintenance, they don’t demolish them and leave them as abandoned houses because, as long as the form of the house remains, the permit is still valid, and according to that permit, they can build a house at any time in the future.

The value of land where you can build a house and the value of land where you can’t are vastly different. Demolishing a house isn’t just getting rid of the house but also giving up the right to build a house on that land, so they just leave it there.

“But why would they manage a place like this? Especially when there’s no one here.”

“I wonder?”

“Let’s see, wait a minute. I can find out the reason, if my prediction is correct.”

At that moment, suddenly the lights in the house started turning on all at once. And seeing that, Jung I-yeon was startled.

“What? Is someone living here?”

“That can’t be.”

Even after seeing that, Park Do-joon said as if it was nothing.

“It’s probably a timer. It turns on the lights naturally at a certain time. Since it’s 6:30 PM now….”

It’s about time for the lights to turn on.

“They go that far?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“You learned it too, right? The broken window theory. That’s basic common sense for anyone studying law.”

“Ah!”

The broken window theory.

When two identical cars are placed in the same area, one is left as is and the other has a window broken. The one with the unbroken window remains intact over time, but the one with the broken window is completely broken, dismantled, and becomes a target for theft in just a few days.

“That’s talking about the importance of management.”

An object being managed by someone is not easily targeted for theft or damage because there is a high possibility of being punished.

A broken window doesn’t just mean damage; it means the absence of a management entity, so it becomes an easier target psychologically.

“If there’s something here, we should assume they can’t put someone here to protect it.”

Because that guy might steal it and leave.

“I guess even if that’s not the case, if they deploy someone, they’ll naturally suspect this place.”

“Yeah. But look at this place.”

The surroundings are well-maintained. There’s no grass because it’s winter, but it’s still relatively clean, and nothing is broken. And the lights turn on naturally at a certain time.

“From the outside, it looks like it’s being managed.”

“That means no one can easily come to steal, right?”

“That’s right. There’s no reason for a thief to come here.”

A neighborhood where the surrounding infrastructure is completely dried up. There’s only one house left; how much could be there?

“From a thief’s perspective, this house has no value in terms of opportunity cost [the potential benefits you miss when choosing one alternative over another].”

What if they ask for help while passing by?

This house is located inside a mountain, and there’s no place to go further inside.

“And look, what’s attached around here.”

“CCTV [closed-circuit television]?”

“What would they need to protect in a place like this that they would install CCTV?”

Moreover, the CCTV is monitoring the surroundings very closely, but they don’t try to hide it, and it’s installed to be seen openly.

“Wait a minute? Then shouldn’t someone be coming?”

“Ah, I don’t think so. Quite a bit of time has passed. The account has been seized, so they wouldn’t have been able to pay.”

“Ah~!”

In the case of a security system provided by an external company, the contract has probably been terminated after that period.

“However, taking back the CCTV is another matter.”

Even if they take it, it’s not something that can be recycled, and if they collect it and use it again, it costs money to install it again, so they probably just stopped providing the service and just stopped the CCTV.

“And this place is out of everyone’s sight.”

“But why did the prosecution come?”

“It’s strange.”

The whole country is tracking him. They’re trying to catch him and send him to prison and recover the money at all costs. But in that situation, he leisurely comes to manage a house in the countryside?

“You think so?”

“There’s no way a profiler wouldn’t be assigned to a case of this magnitude, right?”

At Park Do-joon’s words, Jung I-yeon realized. Profilers are mainly assigned to violent crimes, but this case is violent enough.

“Maybe the profiler said this place was suspicious.”

“But there’s nothing here?”

“That’s the biggest problem with profiling, right?”

They can suspect and warn to be careful of a place, but at the same time, they have no legal authority or responsibility.

Even if a profiler gives advice, they can’t protest or change the direction of the investigation even if the police or prosecution ignore it.

Even if the profiler is right later, it’s just a matter of the police or prosecution getting some flak [criticism], and there’s no responsibility for it.

“As a profiler, it’s too easy to predict that a criminal will hide money in cash or negotiable assets.”

The problem is, where would they hide it in that case? And this house is in the perfect condition. It’s a house managed by Yoo Joon-seung’s family, and the owner of the house is mentally incapacitated and confined to a nursing home in the first place.

And as long as it’s in someone else’s name, there’s almost no chance of a warrant being issued.

“Moreover, the ownership of the assets is clearly organized from the beginning.”

If Yoo Joon-seung bought this house with his own money and transferred the ownership, there might be a possibility of recovery, but this house is where his wife’s father lived and left it to his eldest son with a disability.

Yoo Joon-seung’s contribution is non-existent in that process, so seizure is impossible.

“Let’s go inside.”

Park Do-joon slowly headed to the entrance, but the door was firmly locked.

“How are you going to get in here? You don’t know the password, do you? Are you going to break a window or something?”

Park Do-joon shook his head. There was no reason to do that.

“As you can see, the door is fine, and so are the windows.”

“Then?”

“If the prosecution came here to check the external hard drive as I expected, they would have had to break down the door. There’s no way they wouldn’t have checked it.”

“So?”

If they came this far, they would have forcibly entered, whether they broke a window or called a locksmith to break the door. Either way, it was possible for a prosecutor.

“But the fact that there are no traces of that means there are two possibilities: I made a completely wrong judgment, and the prosecution never came in the first place, or….”

Park Do-joon approached the entrance and tapped the number pad. Then, with a ding, the door opened.

“Or they succeeded in opening the door.”

“Huh… how did you do that?”

“I told you, Yoo Joon-seung is old, and his memory isn’t what it used to be. So how would he remember the password for the house he manages?”

“Ah! He’d make it the same as his house.”

“That’s right.”

And Yoo Joon-seung’s house password was already registered in the investigation records.

“Let’s go in.”

As they entered, the characters on the TV were loudly chattering in the living room.

“Was someone here?”

“That can’t be. This is also a timer.”

Even if a thief breaks in, they would naturally run away if they heard people talking in the living room.

“Even if it’s a robber, if there’s no one, they’ll just steal what they see and leave.”

Looking around the house, it was definitely a mess. The floor was full of shoe prints made of dirt.

“Only one person came. They were wearing shoes.”

Park Do-joon knelt down and checked the footprints.

“Could it be Park Tae-woon?”

“That’s highly likely. The fewer people Park Tae-woon knows, the better.”

And a guy who’s trying to rob a house wouldn’t come in droves.

“Moreover, this is a mountain. The surroundings are abandoned. People who come to a place like this prefer sneakers to shoes.”

In the worst case, they have to climb a mountain or go over dirty places, but shoes are difficult to manage, and climbing a mountain is even more difficult.