14 DAY TRIAL // A letter addressed to “Unknown Asian” was received by the staff of a design school in New York, and demanded $784 (€569) for ambulance services. Emergency services were required by a woman who lived in the school's dorm, but officers didn't manage to obtain the patient's information, so they sent the bill to the place of the intervention.
The school's staff was surprised to see a letter in their mail addressed to an “unknown Asian” somehow related to their institution. The EMS workers who filled out the bill wrote “unknown” as a first name and “Asian” for the last name and omitted checking it again before sending.
The female patient was transported to the hospital after a “drug or intoxication” and the only information the workers received was the address of the dorm. The person who accompanied the "unknown Asian" was unable to provide any details about the woman.
The school staff members found out that the services were required by an Asian female, who was billed for ambulance ride, oxygen and mileage and apparently left without giving her information. In order to cover the costs, the New York Fire Department sent the letter to the only address they had, the one where the services were solicited.
“I hesitated to open it but then I was like, well, I could be an unknown Asian,” Christine Ahn, one of the staff members working at Parson The New School for Design, who received the mail, said according to The New York Post. The most amusing part of the situation is that there are a lot of Asians studying at that particular school and it would be quite hard to find the actual unknown one billed for the services.
Besides the fact that the letter was proof of lack of attention and a job poorly done, it is also kind of racist. The school's staff said it actually was “disrespectful and rude” and started joking about the fact that they should go and ask every Asian student if they are the “unknown” one who requested the services.