Police arrested a Miaoli man on Tuesday night for making bomb threats, but said he was not the notorious "rice bomber" they have been seeking.
The National Police Administration's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) told a press conference yesterday morning that Lo Wei-wen (羅偉文), a 35-year-old real-estate broker, had been arrested at his home for making telephone bomb threats against trains at the Hsinchu Railway Station.
Lo is accused of calling the station on Feb. 8 and telling the duty officer that bombs had been planted on five trains.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The station was immediately sealed off and a complete security check made on all the trains. No explosives were found.
"According to our investigations, Lo does not know how to make a bomb and we did not discover any explosives at his place," said Yang Chun-june (
"In addition, Lo's fingerprints did not match the fingerprints we collected from one of the rice bomber's devices," Yang said.
Officials said Lo told them he was supposed to pick up his girlfriend at the Hsinchu station on Feb. 8 and he was upset because her train was running late. He saw a news report about the rice bomber while watching TV in the station's waiting room and decided to phone in the warning.
According to Yang, Lo said he made the threat "for fun."
Lo's fingerprints were compared with those found on materials collected after an explosion on a Keelung-to-Chunan train on Feb. 2.
The blast occurred when the train was stopped at Chungli Station. No one was injured by the blast, which did not seriously damage the train car. The police, however, did find a small packet of rice and a threatening note calling on the government to stop importing rice -- considered the trademark of the rice bomber.
The first "rice bomb" was found in Ta-an Forest Park on Oct. 27 last year and a second one was found Nov. 13 in a men's restroom in the park.
Four more explosive devices were found in Taipei: one in front of the Ministry of Finance's Financial Data Center on Nov. 22, another in the MRT's Kuting Station on Dec. 2, the next on Dec. 10 in Hsinsheng Park and the last one on Dec. 23 in Yucheng Park.
All of six of the bombs were disarmed and the rice bomber's messages were found nearby.
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