A massive police investigation was launched in South Korea in response to a purported bomb threat against Shohei Ohtani, a baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
While the game was to begin in Seoul, South Korea’s Gocheok Sky Dome, Ohtani was the intended recipient of an email threat.
The Guro police station in Seoul said that despite the employment of sniffer dogs, X-ray scanners, and other technology, a check of the stadium by around 150 officers turned up no suspicious items.
Padres manager Mike Shildt expressed his faith in Major League Baseball and the safety measures, saying that the team felt comfortable. According to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, he was instructed to focus only on the baseball game and did not get any detailed information about the threat.
A South Korean news agency reported that the search was initiated following the receipt of an email threatening the detonation of an explosive device at the stadium before the Major League Baseball opening game between the San Diego Padres and the Dodgers. The email was sent to South Korea’s embassy general in Vancouver, Canada.
It was the Major League Baseball’s first regular season game played in South Korea.
According to the media outlet Yonhap, the individual who sent the email in English claimed to be a lawyer from Japan. The email’s purported originator is linked to many alleged threats issued last year by someone posing as a Japanese lawyer, according to police.
Despite inquiries, the South Korean foreign ministry has yet to elaborate on the contents of the email purportedly sent to the Vancouver consulate general.
According to Guro police, 350 officers had been dispatched shortly before the Dodgers-Padres game started. That morning, police and bomb-sniffing dogs searched the stadium’s seats and halls. As ground staff surveyed the grounds and K-pop artists rehearsed in the outfield, the search seemed to have had no impact on game preparations.
Shohei Ohtani made history when the Los Angeles Dodgers signed a record-breaking $700 million ten-year deal with him. This contract breaks all prior records set by Major League Baseball.
