By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

A man in his 30's was fined eight million won ($6,100) for answering the call of nature over an ATM, police said Friday.

The Geumjeong Police Station in Busan said it fined a 34-year-old identified as Lee on charges of urinating over an ATM, which resulted in the machine breaking down.

According to police, the intoxicated Lee staggered into a 24-hour bank containing several ATMs at 2:50 a.m. on Oct. 1 to urinate, a nasty yet familiar night scene in Korea.

``We would have ignored the case if he had not broken the machine. But we had no choice but to report it to police so as to get the eight million won needed to repair the ATM,'' said a bank official.

pss@koreatimes.co.kr