Singer Jung Chaeyeon of girl group I.O.I had an apparent laser pointer aimed at her face and into her eye during a televised performance on October 26 2016. She continued to sing and appeared to be unfazed and unhurt by the light.

The incident occurred on MBC Music’s “Show Champion” television show. Video shows a brief, approximately 5-second period when a relatively dim light can be seen on Chaeyeon’s face:

An alleged screenshot on Koreaboo.com (below, top images) shows a brighter dot that is yellow with red glowing edges. However, the dot appears to be photoshopped since a video screenshot of the same moment captured by LaserPointerSafety.com shows a dimmer dot (below, bottom images):

From Koreaboo.com; oval added on Koreaboo version. Closeup on bottom.



Video capture at 00:28. Closeup on bottom.

The original video is here (light spot appears from approximately 00:25 to 00:30):

The Google-translated headline on a story from Korean website Dispatch.co.kr is “ ‘Fans rage, threatening safety’ … jeongchaeyeon laser beam terrorism”

According to Koreaboo.com, the alleged laser pointer came from an “anti-fan.” This is a concept where people who dislike celebrities will take negative actions against the celebrity or their fans. For example, one girl group member, Gan Mi-Yeon, received “scores of ‘fan mail’ filled with razors … along with pictures of her with her eyes taken out or letters written in blood.” In 2000, a boy band member was given a soda injected with bleach; his mother happened to drink it and was hospitalized.

Article in English from Koreaboo.com. Original article from Dispatch.co.kr, English translation from Google. Anti-fan information from the Ask A Korean blog.

Tags: Korea, Harassment, TV, Video, Antifan

The police blotter in Northport, Long Island, NY includes an entry where a resident reported that a youth was aiming a laser pointer at his television. The report states that “The officer located the parent of the subject who was pointing the laser. The subject was warned and admonished on hers son's behavior.” The incident happened April 17 2012.

From the Northport Patch

Note from LaserPointerSafety.com: We monitor news reports of laser misuse. One reason for this is to try to get an idea of the relative rate of events such as harassment of the public and of sports figures, aiming at automobiles, aiming at airplanes, etc. We see relatively few reports such as the one above, but have listed it as part of this coverage.

Tags: US, New York state, Harassment, TV, Age: 10-19, Sex: Male

Two professional baseball players were targeted with a green laser pointer, during a July 25 2009 game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies. One of the players said he was “scared for his life”. Footage of the incident is at YouTube.Click to read more...

Tags: Laser lout, TV, Baseball, Sports