I was involved in a similar situation a short while ago. Was out riding when I saw someone on a motorcycle stopped outside HomePro. I only saw him for a split second, but sensed something wasn’t quite right. So I stopped my bike 100 metres down the road and walked back.
I thought he might just ride off and I might feel a bit silly, but I decided to keep going.
When I reached him, I thought he might have been drunk and I was a bit apprehensive since COVID was still rife. He sat on the bike as if he wanted to ride, but wasn’t moving. I didn’t smell any alcohol on him.
I suggested that he got off the bike and took a seat, but he kept pushing my hand away, though not aggressively. He also began to lean to one side, so I put my weight on the bike to keep it upright, but he fought against me to stay at the weird angle.
At that point a Filipino band member came along and told me that the rider had come off the bike earlier just down the road, which explained the scrapes he had on his hand etc
I stopped a pickup full of locals coming out of HomePro and asked them to hold the bike whilst I assisted the rider to rest on the pavement. Took his jacket and used it as a pillow for his head and there he lay. Noticed a phone in his top pocket, but didn’t want to touch it until there were witnesses on the scene. Win(motorbike taxi) came along and started harassing him ‘Mister, mister….’ that annoyed me so I pulled him away. His breathing was okay, so better he was left to calm down and collect his thoughts. Possibly was a bit panicked about his situation but unable to react. Local guy came along with a walkie-talkie and I heard him suggesting that the man was drunk. I insisted that he was not. Walkie-Talkie guy called an ambulance but needed permission from the patient to take him to a hospital. Of course he was in no condition to do so. I took the phone out of his pocket. A new iPhone with just two numbers in it, but no SIM card. I was able to create a HotSpot with another phone to use WhatsApp to try to call the numbers. First one was no longer in existence. Second one just rang out. ????????♂️
Tried the second one again, someone answered, it was his son in Germany, at work.
With a bit of coordination and help from everyone around, someone called a Pattaya City ‘Special Affairs’ crew and together we got him to his place after much ado. But we still had an issue with finding his friend there(his son’s guess was one floor out). Eventually we worked it all out. Manager knew him and together with his friend, I was able to leave him in safe hands.
Kudos to the Pattaya City team and everyone who assisted.
His son flew to Thailand and insisted on meeting me to thank me. But I’m a bit shy so I find these things quite painful.
Now he’s moved back to Germany to be close to his family.
Turned out that he had a fractured skull, a mini stroke, sepsis… not drunk at all.
At least he had people who cared about him where he lived, so not totally lonely.
I did notice him guarding his pocket momentarily, but I think he realised he was in safe hands at some point. His son told me later that he had 80,000 baht in his pocket.
I actually don’t feel comfortable telling the story, but it’s in context.