If it worked for the Terminator, why not him?

When I took the police tests for a Japanese driving license, one of the most important things was to keep my car very close to the curb. It’s not something that’s done a whole lot on the actual roads here, but the police seem to really encourage it during testing. The logic is that by keeping the car so close to the side, it avoids collisions with people on bicycles and motorbikes by cutting them off them from squeezing into your blind spot.

It would seem the police more than anyone know how bikes can seem to pop out of nowhere and cause trouble. But it’s probably safe to say that even the Fukuoka Prefectural Police were shocked when a moped suddenly appeared in the middle of their front lobby on 28 November.

The bike was ridden by a 41-year-old office worker from Kitakyushu City who brought it up to the doors at about 7:10 in the evening. After the automatic doors opened, he proceeded to ride into the lobby and then started revving his engine loudly. Upon seeing an officer, he shouted: “I’m here to talk about bad driving!”

The police accepted his invitation and arrested him for unlawful entry so they could have more time to talk. According to police he admits to his crimes but adds that he wanted them to crack down on people who engage in rude driving techniques like tailgating. He had been earlier cut off by a driver and according to some reports had been having some problems with people at work as well.

As for why he decided to ride into the police station rather than walk, he said “I knew there was a parking lot in the police station but I rode up to the lobby.” While not much of an excuse, his honesty ought to count for something.

Readers of the news were understandably baffled by what happened and left comments explaining that while he may have a point about rude drivers, this clearly wasn’t the best course of action.

“What is going on here?”
“Is this a comedy bit?”
“Maybe he felt he was going to do some reckless driving and wanted to turn himself in.”
“If he were on drugs they would have said so, but he must have been on drugs, right?”
“He does have a point. I don’t see many patrol cars recently and people drive like idiots.”
“They’re not the manner police. What does he want them to do?”
“What kind of thought process goes from ‘I’m frustrated’ to ‘I’m going to rush a police station with my bike?'”
“Even though it’s a police station, the people inside must have been terrified. He could have had a weapon or sprayed the place with gasoline.”
“You can’t get arrested for rude driving. You can, however, get arrested for driving into a police station.”

No one was injured in the incident and no damage was done, but I have to assume that driving into a police station will result in a suspended license at the very least. However, we can’t know his fate without understanding all the details of this case.

Speaking of details, the man claimed he was cut off by a driver while on his bike. That means there’s a more-than-remote chance that he could have been behind a car doing the police-recommended technique of driving really close to the side to stop bikes from passing. If that is the case, it still wouldn’t even be the strangest or most ironic aspect of this whole incident.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun, FBS News, Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!