Claims it was an accident, police not so sure.

A trip to the post office is, ideally, pretty dull. Sure, everyone likes a little adventure now and then to spice up their life, but when you’re just going to mail a package or buy some stamps, no one is really in the mood for much drama or suspense surrounding the transaction.

Unfortunately, customers and worker at the Ryumachi Post Office in Nagoya on July 1 didn’t have the typical/ideal routine morning, as shortly before noon a man entered the post office and sprayed bear repellant.

“Someone sprayed bear replant or something” said the worker who called Japan’s 119 emergency services number around 11:50 a.m., and after police and firefighters rushed to the scene, they were able to confirm that, in fact, was the substance involved and arrested the man responsible. Eight people experienced pain in their throats or other symptoms, and five of them, two women in their 20s, two men in their 20s, and one woman in her 50s, were rushed to the hospital for treatment, though thankfully none of them suffered serious injuries.

Still at the scene when the police arrived was the man who had sprayed the repellant, a 22-year-old Vietnamese national living in the town of Mino, Gifu Prefecture. When questioned, the man said “It’s true that I was the one who sprayed the repellant, but I squeezed the trigger for it by accident.”

Now, it’s true that we all have our startling clumsy moments, but there are a couple of things that cast doubt on the man’s story. First, because it’s powerful stuff, bear repellant canisters come with safety mechanisms. Security camera footage, though, revealed that the safety had been removed from the man’s bear spray canister.

▼ Video of the man being taken into custody

Second, while Japan has been having an unusually large number of bear attacks recently, it’s not like the post office where this took place is in the middle of, or even anywhere near, a forest. It’s smack dab in the middle of downtown Nagoya, one of the largest cities in Japan.

▼ Location of the post office

And finally, real life doesn’t work like a video game with differing context-sensitive outcomes for pressing the same button, like unintentionally accessing your inventory when you really just meant to talk to someone. “I pulled the trigger on my bear spray, but it was an accident!” is a hard excuse to buy when you did it inside a post office, someplace where there’s no good, or even plausible, reason to be doing anything remotely like fiddling around with a bear spray canister in the first place.

Ultimately, the question of intent, and possible criminal culpability, is going to be up to investigators and possibly the court to determine, but the man was placed under arrest on suspicion of forced obstruction of business. With “it was an accident” already being a shaky explanation, it would probably also be best if he doesn’t switch gears and try to justify his actions on the grounds that no bears attacked the post office after the spraying.

Source: FNN Prime Online, Nagoya TV, TV Asahi
Top image: Pakutaso
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