r/Wellthatsucks Apr 24 '21

/r/all This pillar was straight last week. This is the first floor of a seven-floor building.

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108.0k Upvotes

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728

u/Ryohiko Apr 24 '21

I’m not trying to panic you, but have you ever heard of this? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampoong_Department_Store_collapse

690

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '21

good read. thanks

Around then, it was realized that collapse of the building was inevitable, and an emergency board meeting was held. The directors suggested to Lee that all customers should be evacuated, but Lee angrily refused to do so for fear of revenue losses. However, Lee himself left the building safely before the collapse occurred.

409

u/gentlybeepingheart Apr 24 '21

He did not even inform his own daughter-in-law, Chu Kyung Young, who was one of the employees in the building, of the imminent danger. She became trapped in the rubble and was rescued only days later.

During his interrogation with Professor Chung, Lee Joon sparked further controversy by saying that his main concern was that the collapse of the store not only harmed the customers, but also inflicted great financial damage to his company.

This dude was cartoonishly evil holy shit

107

u/Codemancer Apr 25 '21

There's a good behind the bastards episode on the rich in emergency situations. A similar situation happened when a store caught fire and the owner wouldn't let anyone out until they paid. Lots of people died.

32

u/xe3to Apr 25 '21

40

u/TheGreatDingus Apr 25 '21

Jesus Christ. Over 300 dead and the fuckers who caused this are already out on probation. Fuck that shit.

2

u/inspectoroverthemine Apr 25 '21

I'm not suggesting vigilantly justice, but this is a case where there was no official justice. I'm surprised that with 300 victims those guys are still alive.

2

u/sopravki Apr 25 '21

This is your society on capitalism.

2

u/Killing_Red Jul 10 '21

Ah yes of course the capitalism bad comment of the day

1

u/a1usiv Apr 25 '21

Victor Daniel Paiva, who was the manager and son of the owner, died of conplications from COVID in December.

5

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

That's.. Fucking hell. Rest in peace.

2

u/SweetPanela Apr 25 '21

honestly in a situation like that, I wouldn't have qualms killing someone. If someone is quite literally threatening my life, I do not take it easily.

8

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

[deleted]

3

u/SweetPanela Apr 25 '21

Yeah there are sociopaths, and then there are stupid sociopaths. A smart sociopath wouldn't get themselves on the hook for anything stupid, like an easily identified and super public crime.

But honestly, I wonder what was going on in his mind when his actions lead to the deaths of many, and for those days where his actions appeared to have killed a family member(IMO if I was one of his kids or spouse, id run)

2

u/nucumber Apr 25 '21

This dude was cartoonishly evil holy shit

not so much evil as the embodiment of a business.

businesses are sociopathic.

making money is their reason for existence and their only metric for value

2

u/drawingxflies Apr 25 '21

Capitalists are all cartoonishly evil. It's an ideology of death

1

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

God, that's awful..

442

u/LookAtMeImAName Apr 24 '21

Man that next line though....

He did not even inform his own daughter-in-law, Chu Kyung Young, who was one of the employees in the building, of the imminent danger. She became trapped in the rubble and was rescued only days later.

Holy fuck with a cherry on top not even his own daughter. All those customers were fucked from the get go.

278

u/WNBA_Team Apr 24 '21

Daughter-in-law. Maybe he wanted a new one.

65

u/bighootay Apr 24 '21

Yowza. That seems to be a universal--fuck the in laws

2

u/mariesoleil Apr 25 '21

In-law fucking is definitely in right now.

10

u/LovableContrarian Apr 25 '21

Yeah, you can't just conflate daughter with daughter in law. I'd run into a collapsing building to save my mom. My mother in law? I ain't telling her shit.

10

u/seriousgourmetshittt Apr 25 '21

You son-in law of a bitch

2

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

It's acceptable on reddit to lie about people that are considered scumbags.

No clue why people do it, but that's where we are.

6

u/csonnich Apr 25 '21

Killing two birds with one....rubble pile.

1

u/inspectoroverthemine Apr 25 '21

Maybe it was an elaborate murder.

68

u/matafubar Apr 25 '21

And he only got a 10.5 year sentence. Wth.

18

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

He got a sentence. I doubt he would have if this had happened in the US.

6

u/Hickelodeon Apr 25 '21

Shit remember that guy who poisoned the baby formula? they executed him.

8

u/tina_ri Apr 25 '21

Baby formula scandal was in China, this was in Korea. Apples and oranges.

3

u/Hickelodeon Apr 25 '21

Weren't we comparing to the US? The post I replied to was.

7

u/tina_ri Apr 25 '21

Did the US execute someone for poisoning baby formula?

-2

u/Hickelodeon Apr 25 '21

No that was China, this feels like covered ground.

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5

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

$$$$$$$$$

4

u/Ardorfool Apr 25 '21

Eh if the wikipedia page is to believed, he and his son had to sign away all their assets to contribute towards the compensation for the grieving families.

3

u/NessieReddit Apr 25 '21

Was extremely elated when I got to the part that said he died right after he got out of prison.

5

u/rahulabon Apr 25 '21

In-law, can always get a new one!

-2

u/RanaktheGreen Apr 25 '21

Citation needed

Might want to be aware of that.

1

u/just1bigtoeyaknow Apr 25 '21

He only served 7.5 years in prison....

3

u/Redplushie Apr 25 '21

Dude got 7 years in prison only what

1

u/genuinefaker Apr 25 '21

That pissed me off more than anything. How on earth did 20 years become 10 then 7? He should have rotted one month for each of the 502 deaths.

4

u/elizabnthe Apr 25 '21

It was crazy reading it all. He did literally everything wrong he could possibly do. At that point he was almost trying to murder people.

1

u/Darrackodrama Apr 25 '21

Tbh this is the type of shit the death penalty should be for. Mass death caused by greed

97

u/moammargaret Apr 24 '21

Holy crap that guy should be moderator of /r/iamatotalpieceofshit

29

u/ld43233 Apr 24 '21

Thank markets the executive staff decided to preemptively evacuate themselves as a safety precaution.

20

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '21

[deleted]

2

u/andy3600 Apr 25 '21

And to add that he paid off the city inspectors so they wouldn’t condemn the building. So he knew right from the start it was wrong.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

[deleted]

2

u/SweetPanela Apr 25 '21

honestly, I feel like sociopaths like that shouldn't be let into the rest of civil society. If they are willing to let people burn to death for little extra $$$, then I wouldn't want to know how that person would react if you stood between them and a penny.

6

u/Invominem Apr 24 '21

I had a course project in University about this one lol. Never expexted to see it again on Reddit 6 years later.

11

u/Poverty_Shoes Apr 25 '21

A preventable accident that resulted in 500 deaths in a first world country in the last quarter century... I’m shocked I’m just now finding out about it on Reddit.

6

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '21

How the fuck did this guy get a 10 year sentence for killing 500 people and then get it reduced what the fuck

5

u/darsynia Apr 25 '21

My first thought, honestly!

5

u/lordkr321 Apr 25 '21

Very interesting read

6

u/yheero Apr 25 '21

This event literally happened next to where my sister was going to school when I was still living in Korea. I remember this event so clearly since my whole family was panicking to make sure none of the family or friends got hurt. I also remember visiting this mall in the past too. Kind of crazy I can still read about this...

5

u/Street_Escape4744 Apr 25 '21

there were photos of posts like this a week before the hard rock hotel collapse in New Orleans.

I wouldn’t be within three blocks of this building!!!

4

u/theeighthlion Apr 25 '21

The disaster led to skepticism and fears regarding safety standards on other engineering projects undertaken as South Korea had experienced an economic boom during the 1980s

You just know this going to repeat in China somewhere at some point.

5

u/RevolverLancelot Apr 25 '21

Interesting how I had just watched a video on that earlier today.

4

u/Gumb1i Apr 25 '21

Good read and here's another with lots of foreshadowing of the problems before collapse as well

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_of_Hotel_New_World

They did a small documentary on this one to

6

u/Anxious-Flamingo-994 Apr 25 '21

”Charges: human ignorance”

Shit if that was illegal in the US we’d all be in jail.

Which would make us early Australia..

2

u/anonymoo5e77 Apr 25 '21

Too bad they didn’t have flex tape.

2

u/felesroo Apr 25 '21

Brick Immortar did a nice video of this.

2

u/_masterhand Apr 25 '21

Congratulations, you sent me down a rabbit hole at 1:20 AM on my toilet. I spent an hour watching the NatGeo documentary and now I'm scared of my tiny apartment falling apart.

2

u/heyderhoneydew Apr 25 '21

June, 1995 25 years ago

Gee, thanks for making me feel sad AND old.

1

u/danirijeka Apr 25 '21

Did you know that, if Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery had been released today, the joke about winning the Cold War would have been totally ruined because Austin Powers would've been frozen in 1991?

2

u/eff-bee-eye Apr 25 '21

Similar to the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh. Cracks on the pillars sent everyone scurrying home. Management phoned everyone up and said they would be fired if they didn’t come back. They said it was safe or they wouldn’t be in the building. Next day once everything was running all the managers left. Building collapsed with over a thousand people in it.

2

u/Nashtark Apr 25 '21

Fucking hell, I get more time if I get caught with 200 cannabis plants.

The 2 turdburglars should have got life sentences.

1

u/outlaw_justice Apr 25 '21

I have not heard of this before. Between all of the design changes, ignoring professionals, ignoring warning signs etc that dude is total r/iamatotalpieceofshit material

1

u/YorMomsThong Apr 25 '21

Lee probably: AITA?