Photo is unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]
Photo is unrelated to the article. [Getty Images Bank]

A woman who used a men's restroom at a highway rest stop has spoken out after the incident escalated to a police response, saying she found the reaction unwarranted.

The account, posted Friday on social media and online community forums, described a confrontation at a highway rest stop that ended with police being called over restroom use.

The woman, identified only as A, said she had stopped at the rest stop while traveling from Busan to Seoul after suddenly feeling ill. Finding the line for the women's restroom too long, she said she had no choice but to use the men's restroom.

After finishing, she said she repeatedly apologized to male users as she exited, but one man demanded to know why she had used the facility. Even after she explained she had been in severe pain and apologized again, the man continued to express irritation and threatened to call the police.

When A pushed back, asking whether that was really necessary, the man followed through and dialed 112, prompting officers to respond.

Police tried to resolve the situation with a verbal warning on the scene, but the man who filed the complaint reportedly continued to protest, asking whether the response would have been the same had the genders been reversed.

A acknowledged that using the men's restroom was wrong, but said she could not understand why the situation had to consume so much time with a police call. "I just wanted to get home and rest," she wrote. "It ruined my mood and I was dumbfounded."

Online commenters largely sided against A. "She did something wrong and then treats the person who reported it like he's the strange one," one user wrote. Others noted that a man entering a women's restroom under the same circumstances would likely have been taken in for questioning, and told A she should be grateful the matter ended with only a verbal warning.


jshan@heraldcorp.com