Daejeon’s Heartwarming Coffee Gift: How a Local Cafe Supported Rescue Teams During ‘Wolf’ Search

It was later revealed that a cafe owner handed out roughly 3,000 free cups of coffee to police officers and firefighters searching for Neukgu, the wolf that escaped from Daejeon’s O-World.

According to Ediya Coffee’s social media on the 23rd, Byeon Gi-hwan, owner of the Ediya Daejeon O-World branch, provided free coffee to the officers and firefighters involved in the search from the 8th through the 17th.

Even though O-World was closed and the shop had to suspend operations, Byeon delivered about 400–500 cups of coffee a day to the search teams.

Ediya Coffee said that the sudden closure left the store with “0 KRW (0.00 USD)” in sales, but Byeon worried less about the empty shop than about the people working in the cold.

On the first day of the search, the 8th, Byeon handed out coffee to rain-soaked personnel at the scene. He kept supporting them as the search dragged on.

He continued providing coffee until the wolf was captured alive on the 17th, nine days after the escape.

In an interview with Chosun Biz, Byeon said, “When I see people working hard, I naturally want to offer them at least a warm cup of coffee. I just did what I could, hoping Neukgu would come back quickly.”