I have often rode the trains in Korea and wondered about the National Railroad’s measures to prevent terrorism. Although the possibility of terrorism on Korea’s railroad is relatively remote - I do remember in the past there were terrorist alerts and many of the trash cans/bins on the trains were removed so that bombs could not be hidden in them.
It comes with no surprise, that the railroad police often do not investigate seemingly unaccompanied baggage that is just left on the seats - despite having passed the seat several times and not seeing an “owner.” Once when I mentioned this to one of the police men (I believe it was on a KTX a couple of weeks after a terrorist threat) he merely looked at me with amusement and then humored me by asking the other passengers if the luggage belonged to them. A guy clear at the other end of the car was the owner - but why he chose to leave his luggage there I will never know.
Many of you have undoubtedly noticed the signs on the trains and in the subways urging citizens to alert the security stations if they observe any suspicious activities or item that looks questionable.
Fortunately one woman did. On November 22, at about 3:40 p.m., a middle-aged woman passenger on the regular train (무궁화) from Pusan to Seoul was convinced that she smelt a bomb or explosives. She was so convinced that there was a bomb aboard the train that she sent her daughter a text message asking her to send help.
The daughter, alarmed, immediately contacted the correct officials and the police were sent to investigate the threat. Fortunately, the police quickly investigated and did not find a bomb, but did track the source of the offending odor - the bare feet of a male passenger. Apparently, a Korean man in his 50s removed his shoes and socks - to air out the dogs per se - and the smell of his feet were so bad that it led the woman to believe there was a bomb.
While it might be considered amusing - it wasn’t funny to the passenger with the offending feet whose feet smelled explosively horrible.
2 Comments
Nice find there, Mr. Neff. Although for the sake of accuracy, what happened was that other passengers likened the foot odor to a bomb. The lady in question misheard this and thought there was a real bomb on board and she called her daughter.
Ranks up there with the Canadian who brought out the Army CBR by pouring a white powder—coffee creamer—in Namtaeryeong Subway Station to help his foreign friends find the right exit.
And in other foot smell news, a woman in Egypt is divorcing her husband for his unbearable foot odor…
The same thing happened in Seoul right after the laced letters in the US in Sept/Oct 2001. The Hash House Harriers mark their routes with powered chalk or flour, and the cops were dispatched.
Just finished watching the news, and avian flu has struck here. Nice image of officials in bio-hazard suits assisting an unprotected farmer cull his flock. Good thing we have kimchi to protect us.