What would you do if you lost your shoes at the Korean restaurant in Korea?

In South Korea, there are many Korean style restaurants where you should leave your shoes by the door area to go to a table for food and service.

Usually the system is not a problem but when there are crowded, some bad incidents are happened.

What is the events? LOSING SHOES.

It happened barely. When bad luck hits you, it can be you and your shoes can be disappeared without any clue.

What if your shoes are disappeared at that kind of Korean restaurant?

What will you do? What should you do?

Maybe the owner of the restaurant can say that he has no responsibility for your shoes. Or  there can be the board on the door or on the wall near the counter that says 'Keep your shoes by yourself to prevent loss and stolen'.

And possibly if the owner is kind and you are lucky enough, he will provide you a pair of slipper(slip-on shoes) for free so you can leave the restaurant.

Do you think the slipper is the best happy ending you can have?

I don't think so.

In Korea, there are laws to protect consumers. In this kind of case, there is Commercial Act about hospitality business.

The hospitality business is in the business of making transactions by theaters, hotels, restaurants, or other facilities used by the public. And anyone who engages in this business is called a hospitality service provider.

The Commercial Act regulates the liability of hospitality service providers.

Commercial Act Article 152 (Liability of Hospitality Service Providers)
(1) Unless a hospitality service provider proves that he/she has not been negligent in giving due care in the custody of articles deposited from his/her guests to him/her or his/her employee, the hospitality service provider shall be liable for damage resulting from the loss of or damage to the articles kept in his/her custody.
(2) A hospitality service provider shall be liable for damage for the loss of or damage to portable goods brought into his/her establishments, even if not particularly deposited by the guest, when it is due to the lack of due care of the business entity or any of his/her employees.
(3) No hospitality service provider shall be exonerated from liability under paragraphs (1) and (2), even if he/she has informed that he/she is not liable for the loss of or damage to the portable goods of guests.

Yes, it says the hospitality service providers shall be liable for the loss of or damage to the articles kept in his/her custody.

So when you take off your shoes and put them at the door and go to a table, it is thought that you and the owner of the restaurant make a contract containing that the owner keeps your belongs(shoes).

Even though the owner notices to the customers that no responsibility for loss and stolen, the owner's liability is not waived.

Now you know your right, and you can say to the owner like that

"Please, take your responsibility that is gave by Commercial Act Article 152. And give me back my shoes or show me the money!"

Of course, there is the statute of limitation for period for the liability. The period is 6 months.

Which means you should act for your right in 6 month after the incident.

And this law can be applied on car damage/stolen at parking lot where the owner controls.

119 & 112 Emergency Telephone Numbers of South Korea

119 and 112 are South Korean emergency telephone numbers. Such as emergency numbers around the world, this numbers are intended for use in emergency circumstances only, and using it for any other purpose can be a crime.

119 is for any disaster situation such as injury, fire, flood, landslide and etc. And if you use Korean cell phone, when you make a call for 119, they can trace your location for the emergency purpose. And they will show up to rescue and solve the situation.

112 is for any crime situation such as theft, assault, verbal abuse, trespassing and etc. When you call 112, you need to tell them where you are or where the crime happens at for fast response. The police will come as soon as possible if you call 112 anyway.

And here's a tip for Korean life. Actually 119 and 112 are almost the same. The emergency calling systems are integrated, so 119 can be connected 112 and 112 can be connected 119. But I recommend you to call 119 because as I mentioned they can have your location information from your call.