Man arrested for scattering mealworms inside train
A man in Osaka has been arrested after scattering 200 mealworms around inside a train car on the Keihan Railway:
The man, who was arrested for obstructing business, told police officers that he did it because he wanted to see the surprised reactions of other passengers:
At the time of his arrest, Mizuta had about 3,600 worms contained in small, photographic film cases in his bag, the police said.
The incident took place as the train was traveling on the Keihan line through the city of Neyagawa around 10:05 a.m.
The suspect, a resident of Hyogo Prefecture, is believed to have scattered about 200 mealworms, the larva of the darkling beetle, a feeder insect for birds. The railway car was cleaned immediately but the train was delayed by about three minutes, according to the police.
Why such a quick response? Apparently this wasn’t the first worm scattering incident on the Keihan line, so police were on the look out for worm-related activities.
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Thats so bizarre! Actually I had contemplated doing a similar thing with moths, a few months back there was moth on the Yamanote line and the reaction of the passengers was amazing, screaming, running out of the train at the nearest stop, I tried to capture it to throw it out of the window, but it escaped and went further into the carriage..if only I had video camera a whole new you tube movement could have started……
Oh no, it was on the nice double decker express train too!
Eww, gross!
What’s wrong with these Osakans?So many senseless and ugly acts of violence here!
“act of violence”? That’s a bit much, isn’t it? He didn’t stab anyone or anything (that happened on JR).
I’m glad I wasn’t on that train (I ride Keihan), but geez they’re just some worms.
And what’s up with this quote from the linked article:
“Since earlier this month larvae have frequently been found inside Keihan trains, so railroad police officers have been put on alert.”
Does this mean that bugs just happened to lay their eggs on the train (which isn’t unfathomable), or are people bringing the larvae themselves?
no, no. Momonga means an act of violence against the mealworms. Just imagine their their poor little bodies being smished under the insensitive shoes of those giant Osakans, or suddenly flung away off the seat after a selfish surprised reaction….. the horror, the horror….
Ahhh, I see. Save the worms!
“Apparently this wasn’t the first worm scattering incident on the Keihan line, so police were on the look out for worm-related activities.”
Okay, sorry…that’s my vote for “Best News Comment of 2008″
Really struggling for funny quips to throw at the end of these news articles eh? You could just, ya know, post em without.
Could it be that is actually the first successful case in all Japan of police counter-terrorist vigilance foiling an act of terror? We’ve seen so many posters and warnings about the big TERO and the TAISAKU at train stations!
I mean, technically it is a kind of terrorism, isn’t it? He wanted to scare and terrorize people. And on a moving express train no less!
Bravo, Japanese Train Police Squad Cops! Bravo!
I am amazed it wasn’t a gaijin-hanzai-tero!
Maybe we’ll discover that he was zainichi.
Maybe they were scouting filming locations for the upcoming “Mealworms on a Train” movie.
//and anyone freaked out by a mealworm (on a train or anywhere else) should immediately remove themselves from the human race.