I tend not to believe the news my g/f tells me about until it is confirmed here at Forumosa. This one is really scary and yet no discussion.
Is it true that some nut-job is riding around Chong Ho hacking at pedestrians. According to my dubious sources, 3 people were killed last night in Chong Ho by a machete wielding madman riding on a scooter. As of last night he hasn’t been caught. This happened a few years ago in Tai Chung I’ve heard.
Apparently there is something going on…this is from the China Times online edition:
小心藍色雨衣 機車刺客 入侵北縣 中永和、板橋近1個月驚傳3起刺殺案 程式設計師肺部遭刺送醫救治
Beware blue raincoats! Scooter stabber moves into Taipei County
Yonghe, Banqiao have seen 3 stabbing deaths in the past month
Computer programmer stabbed in lungs, sent to hospital
【吳俊陵/台北報導】
Wu Jun-lu reporting from Taipei
台北縣中永和、板橋地區驚傳3起機車刺客連續刺殺機車騎士事件,歹徒疑與連續在宜蘭冬山鄉刺殺3名騎車婦女的「雨衣機車刺客」有關,刑事局已經主動介入調查。
The Yonghe and Banqiao districts of Taipei County have recently been the scene of 3 instances of a scooter rider stabbing other riders to death. The culprit, the “raincoat scooter stabber” [translator’s note: surely we can come up with something more catchy than that?? ], is suspected of continuing on after killing 3 motorcycle riding women in Dongshan, I-lan. The criminal affairs police have already begun an investigation.
警方調查,11日下午2時多,1名在北縣擔任程式設計師的陳茂栓,騎車行經中和市中山路、員山路口,停等紅綠燈時突遭1名騎著125cc光陽機車的歹徒從左背後拍一下,由於當時下著大雨,被害人還以為是對方認錯了人,因此不疑有它。
The police investigation shows that on the afternoon of January 11 at about 2 pm, a computer programmer, Chen Maoquan, who works in Taipei County, was riding his scooter at the intersection of Zhongshan Road and Yuanshan Road in Zhonghe. While stopped at a red light, he was attacked by a rider on a 125cc Kuangyang scooter who approached him from behind on his left side. Since it was raining heavily at the time, the victim thought that the man, who struck him, was someone who had mistaken him for an acquaintance, so he did not suspect anything.
It was only when the victim got home and took off his raincoat that he discovered that he was covered in blood. He was sent to the emergency room at Banqiao's Yadong Hospital, where he was treated for stab wounds which penetrated as deeply as the lung. Currently the victim is still in the hospital. Preliminary police investigation reveals that Mr. Chen's attacker did not have any grudge against him, and indeed did not even know him. The Taipei County police also discovered that within the past month, Banqiao, Zhonghe and Yonghe have been the scene of 2 incidents in which motorcycle riders were stabbed to death. Of these, two victims were university students going into or out of their school. All attacks occurred late at night, and were committed by a subject wearing a blue raincoat which facilitated the attack.
[A very quick translation…apologies for inaccuracies but that’s basically it.]
A few months back there was a machete wielding motorcycle rider in the Taiching area who would slash other motorcycle riders at random. There were three victims, only one of whom died.
In the last few days there has been a very similar machete wielder in the Yonghe area who has also slashed three motorcyclists at random. I don’t believe that any of these victims died, but as Ironlady posted, one of them had a punctured lung. In the Yong He case he tends to strike on rainy days.
The police indicated that they were unsure if there was any relationship between the two!
How come we are not hearing more about this?
I don’t have cable any more… is this on the news at all?
Anyone see any follow up articles in the newspapers?
Thanks,
SQJ
[quote=“SquiggyJahmal”]How come we are not hearing more about this?
I don’t have cable any more… is this on the news at all?
Anyone see any follow up articles in the newspapers?
Thanks,
SQJ[/quote]
I was just starting to relax while lone biking in the tea farm hills with crazed looking machette weilders walking by with their bottle of Whisby.
[quote=“SquiggyJahmal”]How come we are not hearing more about this?
I don’t have cable any more… is this on the news at all?
Anyone see any follow up articles in the newspapers?
Thanks,
SQJ[/quote]
I couldn’t agree more. This is a serious situation that should require PSAs by all media. Instead, the media converges on a Xindian MRT station when a women falls down and scrapes her knee. Wouldn’t a machete-wielding madman further support the media’s desire to oust Mayor Mah?
I get really pissed off with the media here. I even have my colleague checking the Taiwanese websites for mention of this. Nothing. Damn! :fume: :fume: :fume:
[quote=“James T”][quote=“SquiggyJahmal”]How come we are not hearing more about this?
I don’t have cable any more… is this on the news at all?
Anyone see any follow up articles in the newspapers?
Thanks,
SQJ[/quote]
I couldn’t agree more. This is a serious situation that should require PSAs by all media. [/quote]
They’re busy with the drunken dad beats baby and hospitals refuse to treat it story. I caught a glimpse of that on TV yesterday with a “Day 7” caption that appeared as if they were covering the invasion of Iraq, and the bubbly announcer tried to look serious, but not serious enough to turn off the viewers, as the photographers crammed their cameras in the faces of sobbing relatives. Take a random case of devastating personal tragedy, package it into a catchy news story with appropriate captions and music and prolong it to maximize profits. How sweet.
I’ve been telling my Taiwanese friends and they don’t believe me because they haven’t heard or seen anything about it. They say I have bad sources. I don’t know where to back it up besides this thread.
Oh it’s happening. My “dubious” source called me last night just to tell me she was watching another news item about it and that she isn’t a liar.
I told her to switch to channel 70 and watch Vegas. Man, I wish I worked in the costuming department on that show. Yowsa.
Sorry, OT. Please don’t flounder meee
eeeeeeee
eeeeeeee
Is Forumosa possibly the only bastion of un-biased, in-yer-face reporting available on this island? Sounds like a job for The Wolfman. Too bad he’s gone. :fume:
Oh it’s happening. My “dubious” source called me last night just to tell me she was watching another news item about it and that she isn’t a liar.
I told her to switch to channel 70 and watch Vegas. Man, I wish I worked in the costuming department on that show. Yowsa.
Sorry, OT. Please don’t flounder meee
eeeeeeee
eeeeeeee
Is Forumosa possibly the only bastion of un-biased, in-yer-face reporting available on this island? Sounds like a job for The Wolfman. Too bad he’s gone. :fume:[/quote]
My wife also saw this story on one of the news channels last night.
She immediately turned to me and said I must never leave the house.
I told her she was “very special.”
Well, we can sleep a little easier. Apparently, he’s been caught. But it got me thinking: How can we protect ourselves from this kind of attack. I came up with one idea that could lessen one’s chance of being victimized.
Walk facing traffic. Be aware of approaching sounds behind you. Obviously, this guy is a cowardly little turd and merely making eye contact should be enough to dissuade him.
IN the case of the “backstabbing wolf” who stabbed a man in the back on Jan 11 in Zhonghe, a suspect has been arrested by police through the use of surveillance cameras. The male suspect is currently being questioned.
The brush-cut, 30-year old suspect is about 165 cm tall. After stabbing a motorcycle rider in the back with a sharp knife, the suspect walked around brandishing the knife and swaggering. Fortunately, his face was captured by surveillance cameras due to his grandstanding, giving police a valuable clue.
(Sorry, got to run out in like 5 min. so this is quickie translation)
Sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but from my understanding, the guy arrested in Yonghe is NOT the ‘machete man’.
Apparently the guy arrested in Yonghe was a somewhat emotionally unstable drunk who lashed at another motorcyclist for giving him a dirty look. He was only involved in this one isolated incident.
The ‘machete man’ is still at large as the police have apparently ruled this guy out of those cases.