Bjarne Winberg was enjoying another quiet evening on the Finnish island of Kamsholmen when he spotted men carrying guns and equipment off a boat onto the dock. He booked it to his own boat, narrowly escaped into the darkness and called the cops. Like you do, when your country is being invaded.
But what Winberg actually witnessed was part of the Finnish military’s “spring training exercises,” according to reports collected by the BBC.
Östnyland tells us the Finnish military was running training involving some 1,300 people “mainly from the Naval Academy, Coast Brigade, the Uusimaa Brigade and coastal fleet” for about a week in May.
But it sounds like landing on Kamsholmen was not part of the plan. The translation of Finnish Naval School representative Auli Aho’s statement to Östnyland reads:
The island is not part of the exercise. It is not good if they move the people’s farms, so it must have been a mistake. Maybe they lost it. We’re going to find out.
That would explain why Winberg and his neighbors, if he has any, didn’t have any warning or notice about the “invasion.”
“Of course I was scared.” Winberg told local paper Uutiset. “I crept into my own boat and got straight off the island, to be on the safe side.”
Apparently Gevalia, a Scandinavian coffee company with the tagline “when you have unexpected guests,” is mailing free coffee to folks who got freaked out by the non-invasion in an attempt to get some free press.
Let this be a lesson to everyone. Don’t worry if your country is ever invaded. It will not mean death, destruction, and the uprooting of lives. It means free coffee.