The Great Couch Theft of 2008!

Before I came to Korea I scoured the interwebs looking for videos about foreigners in Korea. Looking for those comedic souls that put videos up of their apartments, or their travels, and sometimes I'd get lucky and find something. I specifically remember a video of a man who video'ed what his apartment looked like and his detailed account of everything within the place had been stolen from the street. I was inspired by this man and made it my goal that I would too, steal things from the street.

Up until now I really haven't had the chance or the real need. My apartment came equipped with everything I would need and its one of the nicest apartments I've seen in Korea actually so I can't complain. Although I did have limited seating upon arriving and I am a big fan of entertaining. A few weeks ago I managed to steal an everyday table chair off the street but there was nothing really fun or interesting about that - it was just kind of sitting there asking to be taken. Koreans really do leave a ton of furniture out on the street as they are obsessed with the proverbial "Keeping up with the Joneses" and making sure they have the latest everything.

The Great Couch Theft of 2008 was one of the funniest nights I've had in this country. Thursday night after leaving work at 6pm we discovered a pile of seemingly new-ish couches and chairs on the corner with stickers on them that we assumed were billing information for trash collectors. Well, we saved this company some money because after phoning two friends, we came back at 11pm and took what we wanted.

First trip was carrying a full leather couch down 5 blocks to a friend's place. We stopped every so often and of course documented the whole thing cuz it was heavy.




The second trip was to take a really nice leather chair into my apartment only 3 blocks away BUT up my 4 flights of stairs. I now have a nice little nook of my apartment where I can curl up and read a book or watch a movie. And lastly, the third trip was to take a two parter couch 6 blocks - which might have been the most entertaining because we quite literally carried the things on our backs since we were all pretty tired and sore by this point.



Lets take a look at the clip:



At nearly 1am after a quite a bit of lifting we all went back to our respective places and enjoyed the fruits of our labors. I feel I have gone through a rite of passage by stealing street furniture and now I have an even more comfortable apartment! The decision to eventually leave Korea is getting harder and harder...