Bullet-like holes puzzle apartment’s residents
A resident living in Raemian Dogok County, a luxury residential apartment in Seoul’s upscale Gangnam District, was surprised on Tuesday after coming across what looked like a bullet hole in the window of his house.The hole was 2 millimeters (0.07-inch) in diameter, with noticeable cracks inching up the glass from the point of entry. The man immediately called his neighbor to alert him of his discovery. As it turned out, four of his neighbors, residing between the building’s eighth and 10th floors, came back to say that they had also found similar holes in their windows.
So they reported their concerns to the authorities. Police officers from Suseo Police Station came out to the building the following day, but had no luck finding any bullets. The projectiles, they said, were likely ball bearings or small pellets from an air gun.
“Given the distance of the shooting and the cracks on the windows, the projectiles appear to be from a slingshot or an air rifle,” a police official said. “If the residents had opened their windows, the projectiles would have entered their houses and damaged their property.”
Authorities said that, based on an analysis on the shape and size of the holes, as well as the geographical landscape, the objects seem to have come from one of the buildings in the Dogok Rexle Apartment complex, just across from the targeted building. “If you see the holes, you can tell that the projectiles were shot at an almost horizontal angle,” a police official said. “It would appear that whoever shot them, shot them from a building in the Dogok Rexle Apartment complex, which stands at nearly the same height as the [Raemian Dogok County building].”
When the JoongAng Ilbo visited the area this week, the distance between the targeted building and the neighboring site was a mere 100 meters. The space between the two apartments is completely clear, save for the roads that lead to the buildings’ underground parking garages and a few trees. The incident is the latest upset for tenants from both buildings, who have been embroiled in a class-action lawsuit since 2010.
A group of residents living in Dogok Rexle Apartment complex filed the suit against the owners of Raemian Dogok County and a local construction company in charge of remodeling the latter apartment. After construction started, residents in the Dogok Rexle Apartment complex claimed that the remodeling caused cracks in their parking lot, located between the two complexes, and demanded compensation.
Police are continuing their investigation. They did not say whether they believed the incident was related to the pending lawsuit.
BY LEE SEUNG-HO [heejin@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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