Having left roughing up taxi drivers to the English teachers, USFK is apparently concentrating its effort on wreaking havoc on Korea’s city bus system.
A 22-year-old USFK private took a Seoul City bus for a bit of a spin early Saturday morning, stealing the vehicle from the War Memorial parking lot and driving it to Seoul Station before police nabbed him near Samgakji.
The GI in question was supposedly dead drunk, but refused a blood alcohol test because he wouldn’t rinse his mouth out with “dirty Korean water.”
According to one police official, he also used the word “fucking” repeatedly during his questioning and made disparaging remarks about Korea.
Nice.
And this after the Uijeongbu Bus Riot.
(HT tip to Lost Nomad)
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
From the linked Stripes article:
“Local city buses usually are parked unlocked with the keys inside after they finish their service.”
There’s a handy tip to file away for the next time you’re out, the subway’s closed down, and there are no taxis around.
Well, let’s take the reports of what the soldier said with a grain of salt — nobody at the police station speaks Engrishee and the soldier doesn’t speak Korean either. And we all know that Korean newspapers are pretty liberal about making stuff up and twisting things, especially when it can used to make soldiers look bad. Still, taking a bus for a joyride is plenty stupid.
As for the f-word, while I have no doubt the soldier used it repeatedly, my experience has been that Koreans absolutely misapprehend the all-purpose nature of the f-word in the American vernacular, in particular how its utterance is not always aimed at any specific person. Sometimes it’s just an interjection, like “Hey!”
Like “ship-pal” doesn’t occur with equal frequency in Korean
I’ve updated my evacuation plans:
1) collect 400,000,000 wonchonse from landlord
2) change won from chonse to dollars
3)
steal motorcyclesteal bus4) throw my 8.8 lbs of $100 bills and 52.8 lbs of water (8 liters x 3 days) into bus
5) drive south
6) call wife from Thailand
I reckon the bus is the most realistic part of the plan.
I hate to say it but I’ve heard “ship-pal” from little kids more than I have from adults here.
Like some ex-pats who drop in here once in a while to rip Korea and Koreans. They just hate anything and everything about Korea. And, they ask other ex-pats to join in on their idiotic Korea-bashing.
The answer is always the same, “if you hate the water, don’t drink. If you hate the country, leave.”
Looks like Baduk is finally out of the bunker in Hwaderi, N. Korea.
Welcome back, crazy cat!
True dat, baduk. If he did steal the bus, it could be a symptom of the guy’s fucked-upness regarding something else.
Baduk, please do tell who exactly is engaging in “idiotic Korea-bashing” in this thread? If by chance you aren’t refering to the commenters but to the soldier in this case, let me remind you a soldier assigned to Korea generally has no say in the matter. The vast majority are required to come against their own wishes.
I tend to agree with you about expats who rail on Korea for little apparent reason, but who here is doing that?
Of course the soldier who steals a bus for a joyride is a disaster — can I get a show of hands on how many buses the other posters have stolen? Or how many vehicles period, for a joyride? Zero here.
And yes, a hearty Welcome Back to the Crazy Cat. Bluejives and pawikirogi have been doing their best, but for sheer lunacy nobody beats the Crazy Cat.
Baduk:
As an enlisted member of the US military, he has no choice as to where he is based. So this sentiment, while valid, doesn’t apply in this case.
Actually he would have flown home next week…, he fucked that up and now gets to stay…, ironic!
Brendon, you’ve got it right. The F-word, and its variations, has many lexical and grammatical uses (I can’t remember if it’s 49 or 79 different uses).
In any case, here are the ’11 most famous uses of the F-word’:
11. “What the @#$% do you mean, we are sinking?” – Capt. E.J. Smith of RMS Titanic, 1912
10. “What the @#$% was that?” – Mayor of Hiroshima, 1945
9. “Where did all those @#$%ing Indians come from?” – Custer, 1877
8. “Any @#$%ing idiot could understand that.” – Einstein, 1938
7. “It does so @#$%ing look like her!” – Picasso, 1926
6. “How the @#$% did you work that out?” – Pythagoras, 126 BC
5. “You want WHAT on the @#$%in ceiling?” – Michelangelo, 1566
4. “Where the @#$% are we?” – Amelia Earhart, 1937
3. “Scattered @#$% showers, my ass!” – Noah, 4314 BC
2. “Aw c’mon. Who the @#$% is going to find out?” – Bill Clinton, 1998
1. “Geez, I didn’t think they’d get this @#$%^ing mad.” – Kim Jong Il, 2006
I @#$% you not, this is abso-@#$%^ing-lutely the next book I buy after I’m done reading “State and Society in Contemporary Korea”: http://www.amazon.com/F-Word-Second-Random-House/dp/0375706348
Perhaps the guy wanted to avoid deployment to Iraq?
I’m glad to see Baduk back…I already welcomed him on another thread. I’ve never seen him bashing expats before, but I think he was referring to the general phenomenon, not to anything anyone said on this thread.
His usual tack is “commie”-bashing, and he’s missed so many good opportunities in the last couple of weeks to entertain us all with it!
Someguy: Those quotes are @#$%^ing brilliant! Holy @#$%!
Taking a bus for a joyride is pretty silly, considering how conspicuous a bus is, but of a multitude of possible crimes, this one is kind of amusing to me. Nobody gets hurt (unless he was so drunk he sideswiped a couple of cars), there were no passengers on the bus (it would have been even more entertaining if he’d stopped and picked up some fares!), and the bus company gets its vehicle back (because it’s only a matter of time before it’s found).
Seoul doesn’t have any trolleybuses, but that’d be an even more futile adventure, as you’d have to just follow the wires….
From the hearts of all English teachers:
Thank you, drunk G.I.s… thank you.
Speaking of Samgakchi …….is CNN going to cover the anti-American-American flag burning KKKorea hell raising hate whitey rally dem der gooks have scheduled to take place in front of da War Memorial on October 22nd?
Fucking pricks, I’m going down with my camera…is CNN coming? Maybe they can catch me on camera beating he crap out of five of them before they kill me.
hardy: don’t forget to take with you your Confederate flag. It might puzzle the mob just long enough to get you time to escape.
Someguy: excellent! I am surprised that one of the ‘famous uses’ wasn’t about the dot-com burst, as I am sure there are lotsa readily available ‘true’ quotes that’d fit…
Then again, since you went as far back as Noah, I am disappointed you didn’t quote Tangun’s mother:
You hafta be %$#^%*ing kidding Mister! Get that pecker in check willya?
C’mon SomeguyinKorea!
It should be #1.
I don’t think the dear @#$% leader KJI can’t overtake the popularity of @#$% Bill and Monica.
A 22-year-old USFK private took a Seoul City bus for a bit of a spin early Saturday morning, stealing the vehicle from the War Memorial parking lot and driving it to Seoul Station before police nabbed him near Samgakji.
We need more GI meschugena’s like him raising holy hell and ruffling all kinds of Confucian feathers the wrong way to constantly remind the public that USFK really stands for “US Fucks Korea”. We can also use more Engrish Expat Boys Gone Wild incidents to further remind the public that while Koreans sweat and labor to learn this difficult lingua france of the globalized world, Americans, Canucks, and other assorted JET Program rejects with useless liberal arts degrees and no real job prospects back home are going around raising holy hell and ruffling all kinds of Confucian feathers the wrong on Korea’s dime.
“If by chance you aren’t refering to the commenters but to the soldier in this case, let me remind you a soldier assigned to Korea generally has no say in the matter. The vast majority are required to come against their own wishes.”
Ummm… if you don’t want to be sent somewhere that you might want to complain about, don’t join an organisation that might send you there.
Caveat emptor.
Sometimes, joining the Armed Forces – with the inconveniences it may bring – is a better option overall than not joining. Notice the ethinicity of the joy-rider. Could be he joined in order to be a citizen, or for any other economic reasons, rather than the love of the uniform…
From the Stripes article:
These seems to suggest that someone knew something was up not because anyone from the bus company reported a missing bus, but because someone saw a foreigner driving a bus! (Mind you, I’d find it odd, too, if I saw a non-Korean in Korea doing a job that typically only Koreans do.)
Is this a case of DWW (“driving while white”)?
And no, I am not defending what he did at all.
If he weren’t (allegedly) intoxicated, though, I’d say it’s probably the most entertaining crime story I’ve ever read…no injuries, no property damage, no loss of property (except for burning of the bus company’s gas).
I think it’s common practice in many places (not just Korea) for buses to be left unlocked and startable…mainly because it’s so implausible that anyone would bother trying to steal a bus. What’s the point? Driving a huge 40-foot vehicle with a number painted on it (the fleet #, not the route #), the thief is almost guaranteed to get caught sooner rather than later.
As long as he had it, he should have treated himself to a tour of Namsan or something.
I didn’t come up with the list myself. It’s one of those things things people email each other. In the original version, the quote at number 1 was attributed to Saddam Hussein.
This story would have been even better if they hadnt caught him.
Would he have tried to drive on post or parked up outside and casually walked through the gate??
I am counting on this story being buried by the Korean press until the next Presidential Election.
wow
seems like the us armed forces are a disciplined lot
When did the world become Starship Troopers?
2004.
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