K-pop fever gone wrong: Teenager steals from grandma to buy P2.7 million worth of merchandise

In a case of K-pop fever that have gone out of hand, a senior high school student ended up stealing over P2 million from her grandmother to buy K-pop merchandise.

According to an episode of "Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho," the student, Bea (not her real name), was a cashier at her grandmother's plastic store. She was paid a salary of P350 per day.

She also has an allowance of P450 per day and initially used her savings to buy K-pop memorabilia online. However, as her collection grew, the sales from her grandmother's store also dwindled.

They eventually figured out that the missing money was taken by Bea little by little to buy K-pop albums, memorabilia, and more.

Bea's K-pop collection now amounts to P2.7 million. Currently, she has around 3,000 photo cards of K-pop stars organized in 23 binders and 50 albums of BTS, BLACKPINK, NCT, and ENHYPEN.

She also bought a VIP ticket worth P13,250 to ENHYPEN's concert in the Philippines.

"Hindi ko din po alam kung bakit hindi ko pa po tuluyang matigil. Pinagsisihan ko na bumili pa po ako ng mga ganyan. Alam ko naman pong mali tapos ginawa ko pa din," Bea said.

Her grandmother, Agnes (not her real name), said it hurt to know what Bea had done. Due to what happened, she had to consider selling some of their property to pay off her suppliers.

This is also not the first time that Bea was caught stealing cash from the store. She previously took around P10,000 and admitted to taking P15,000 to P20,000 in another incident. 

"Gipit na gipit ako tapos ganun-ganun ang ginawa niya!" she said. "Buong buhay ko 'di ako naipon ng ganyan. Grabe na 'yung ginawang nakaw."

"'Di naman ako nag kulang sa kanya," she added. "Sabi ko, 'Di tayo mayaman.'"

Bea said she first discovered BTS through her classmates in Grade 5 and she started buying merch just like other fans.

"Kapag ina-unbox ko, nabibigyan niya po ako ng excitement," Bea said.

According to Roland Macawili, humanities and social sciences faculty at the De La Salle University - Integrated School, said that collecting merchandise contributes of to the sense of belongingness of fans.

"'Yung ganung pagkolekta ng mga merchandise ng mga K-pop groups ay nagbibigay ng patunay sa kanila na they're indeed a part or a member of that fandom," he said.

In the case of Bea, a psychologist, Dr. Camille Garcia, said she may have impulse control disorder.

"Malala dahil umabot siya sa punto na kumukuha na siya ng pera," she said about Bea, but said that the teenager still has a chance to be better.

Meanwhile, Bea's family is trying to get back some of the money by selling some of the items. KMJS helped them get in touch with a live seller to sell the products. They sold some of the memorabilia for a total of P13,800 that day.

They are also looking to sell more on their Facebook page, KPop Jagiya PH, which K-pop fans can check out if they're interested.

On what she learned from this experience, Bea said, "Hindi naman po masamang mag-collect pero i-limit po 'yung sarili sa kung ano lang yung tama."

Bea also apologized to her grandmother.

"Grandma, alam ko hindi pa ako nakakapag-apologize nang maayos sa 'yo. I'm sorry. Gagawin ko 'yung best ko para makabawi."

—Kimberly Tsao/MGP, GMA Integrated News