TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Police identified the culprit behind a phantom raincoat seen hovering over a zebra crossing in Changhua City earlier this week.
While waiting at a stoplight on Monday (Nov. 6), a resident of Changhua City's Xizhou Township captured the video of a yellow raincoat "drifting across the zebra crossing on its own" for more than 2.5 minutes. Most experts concluded that it was manmade, and police launched an investigation into the possibility that it was a prank.
The floating raincoat in Changhua sparked heated discussion among netizens. Witnesses spotted a yellow raincoat appearing to be worn by an invisible person walking in the middle of the road. When the raincoat reached the halfway mark in the street, as if it saw a car approaching, it glided over to the zebra crossing, before reaching the median.
Raincoat seen floating on Monday. (Changhua County Police Department image)
In response, the Beidou Precinct of the Changhua County Police Department formed a task force to investigate the incident and viewed surveillance camera footage at several surrounding intersections.
On Wednesday evening (Nov. 8), police found through the footage that the person involved was a 40-year-old male plumber surnamed Chuang (鐘), who resides in Xizhou Township, reported EBC News. He is the son of the owner of a house near the incident.
Police immediately took Chung in for questioning and he confessed to concocting the prank. Chung said he first sealed the hood and sleeves of the raincoat with double-sided tape and then inflated the raincoat with hydrogen gas.
He then placed the hydrogen-filled raincoat on the road and let it float in the wind, creating a seemingly supernatural phenomenon. Chung confessed that he thought it was funny, per TTV News.
Photo of Chung taken in police station. (Changhua County Police Department photo)
Police said that Chung's behavior frightened motorists and endangered safety. It breached Article 63, Paragraph 1, Item 6 of the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) of "Scaring another person by wearing a disguise or mask, or using other ways to a degree that may undermine safety."
After completing their investigation, police transferred Chung to the Changhua District Court.
