Udox

How about locals reporting lazy arsed policemen for also breaking laws and in addition not upholding the laws they as are paid to do.

Instead we witness police standing by watching while the taxi mafia cause willful damage on a legitimate Phuket business and then state that "the taxi drivers were angry and they have a right to be angry"

If that isn't support for criminals - what is?

Pie in the sky ideas above

How about a plastic rubbish bin on every street corner, to stop people dumping crap all over the sois, which then in turn would cut down on the horrific rat population who delight in rummaging through plastic bags thrown around the streets. This would cost hardly anything to provide - heck you could even get Tesco / Topps etc to sponsor a bin - in return for putting an advertising sticker on the bin.

How about providing proper marked street stalls for street vendors - so that Somchai's somtam stall doesn't block the busy path (street vending may be illegal - but its here and useful so why not regulate it)

How about enforcing the law and prohibiting motorcycles riding on the pathways? That would make it safer for those who walk on them and cut down on crime by those who snatch handbags and suchlike

How about enforcing the red light means stop for drivers. On Sukhumvit Road in Bkk the traffic flow never stops and traffic are allowed to drive straight onwards through red lights under the eye of the traffic police box next to the junction. Thus pedestrians cannot cross the road without playing chicken.

Demand that every police officer has his police number displayed on his uniform - to make it easy to identify him (for good and for bad reasons) He who has nothing to hide, has nothing to worry about.

In five minutes there's 5 schemes for little or no cost that would improve peoples daily lives. Its not all about fancy ideas with big budgets. Its simply working with what you have to make the best of it and having the will to do so instead of a lot of hot air spouting out of your mouth.

I would offer her a reward for finding your phone and saving you from blocking it. If she's not respoinsive, push Lookout onto it and locate the phone or wipe it.

Forgive me if I am being naive, but having been on the Lookout webpage - it seems that you must install the app actually on the phone first, after that you can track it, lock it wipe it etc. from a PC, much like the other programmes (avast, Samsung drive)

If you know how I might install (or 'push' as you called it) without even knowing the new phone number she is using - please let me know (by PM if you don't want to make it public)

I am on a learning curve here and the knowledge I have gained from this forum in the last two weeks has been awesome. It won't happen again, now I know how to better protect the phones, but that doesn't solve the immediate problem.

The person using the phone now is a 22 year old girl and yes, she has put a picture of (what I presume is) herself on the chat programme icon, and yes - I have printed it - ready for ......... well I'm not sure yet.

Oddly enough she (or someone) seems to be back using the phone after a break of 4 days (so maybe she didn't sell it after all) and we are still hoping that one day soon she will press the google maps icon and we will get a fix on her location.

Yes we could go to the police station and show them the picture but would anyone admit that it was their daughter, girlfriend or kik ?

They have already showed that they are utterly dishonest so the only hope (and a very long shot) is that one of the other BIB holds his hand up and says "yes, the girl is xxx's daughter" (or girlfriend or wife etc.) (pretty damned unlikely)

Feed google with the picture:

Drag and drop the image in the search box:

http://www.google.co...hp?hl=en&tab=wi

Maybe a facebook pic with name shows up!

Thanks for your help, and for the link. That was quite an eye opener.

I guess you will have to have a very clear and specific picture if it is to match up with what must be billions of online pictures - sadly nothing turned up in this instance.

I tried the advanced search and also the 'view similar images' button - which was actually quite disturbing.

I was shown pictures of girls (lots of them) a poodle (yep) - a picture of Pluto the dog, a picture of Barbara Streisand and also one of a couple having sex

Google sure does have some wide open criteria for their search engines

It was definitely worth a try though and actually will be fun to play with when stuck for something to do also

Thanks again.

It cannot be a VAT thing as VAT is 7% in Thailand compared to 20% in Uk - so the ticket should be cheaper in Thailand

It cannot be an airport tax thing either because you will use the UK airport for 1 departure and 1 arrival + Bkk airport for 1 arrival and 1 departure - no matter which direction you fly

Although it could well be a supply and demand scenario, as suggested - you would think that a smart operator would jump in there and undercut the other airlines and almost guarantee 100% occupancy on every flight, however the only people seemingly doing the undercutting are airlines such as China Southern, FinnAir and Turkish.

I have asked a relative to try to book for me in the UK - waiting for the outcome.

I haven't read all the postings yet but I have read up to the point where the bag with all belongings minus the mobile were returned to the police.

I have a friend who was in a similar situation. Her blackberry was stolen at a hotel restaurant. Neither the staff nor the police were very interested in the case even though she offered a cash reward.

After a few days, her friends saw her online but the profile photo had changed. She downloaded the photo and returned to the hotel and asked the manager if he knew the person on the photo. Sure enough it was one of the waiters. The waiter was questioned and he admitted that there was a little group of people involved in stealing mobiles and other valuables from customers. The phone was returned and the staff were sacked. No police involvement.

Maybe if you check the photo against the police officers it could be one of them but then how on earth would you tackle that situation?

The person using the phone now is a 22 year old girl and yes, she has put a picture of (what I presume is) herself on the chat programme icon, and yes - I have printed it - ready for ......... well I'm not sure yet.

Oddly enough she (or someone) seems to be back using the phone after a break of 4 days (so maybe she didn't sell it after all) and we are still hoping that one day soon she will press the google maps icon and we will get a fix on her location.

Yes we could go to the police station and show them the picture but would anyone admit that it was their daughter, girlfriend or kik ?

They have already showed that they are utterly dishonest so the only hope (and a very long shot) is that one of the other BIB holds his hand up and says "yes, the girl is xxx's daughter" (or girlfriend or wife etc.) (pretty damned unlikely)

This is in one way simple. The law is clear, if any foreigner is detained by the authorities [in all their manifold guises] they are required to advise the individual's embassy as a matte of urgency. No ifs, buts, or maybes.

This is serious breach whatever the circumstances. It is even more troubling that an individual should be held apparently incommunicado and the tale is then that she is guilty of a crime [but has not been brought before a court] to excuse this failure to meet basic legal safeguards.

Even if she is guilty of any crime the requirement to notify stands.

Regards

Ha !

All the 'Laws' here are "Clear" - in fact they are written down in Black and White

Tell me what an ounce of difference that makes to anything.

(Most of) The 'upholders' of law and order here have no respect for the 'law' and regularly break the law themselves. - Go figure !

Nope you can buy a ticket in the UK for outgoing flights from BKK, there may be a difference in taxes. PS: some airlines you may have to show the credit card you ised to purchase the ticket with online.

I wondered about the taxes difference (if any) - but then as i would be using exactly the same airports at both departure and arrival airports as my relatives - why are they paying hundreds of pounds less, surely airport taxes are taken into account when airlines post fares on their websites - so it still doesn't explain why the same airline/flights/airports have such huge price differences depending upon country of commencement.

I could ask someone in UK to book for me (at a shop if necessary) but even if I booked online with a credit card - its not a problem as I am the traveler so can show the credit card (if asked). The problem is that everytime I state that my country of commencement is Thailand - the price jumps up

I have relatives visiting in April. they paid 547 UK pounds for return tickets on Etihad.

I checked the price on the Etihad website) for the reverse journey (Bkk-UK_Bkk) same flights/times/airline and got 42,750 baht - which at 48/pound = 890.00 UK pounds

If they came here in July - they would have to pay 703.00 UK pounds because its high season in UK - but still much cheaper than the same 890.00 (42,750 baht) I am quoted here in Bangkok for the same period (on the official website)

How is it possible to have such massive price differences for the same airline/destination/dates/times etc - just booked in a different country?

Is there any 'rule' against booking and paying for a ticket in the UK but starting the journey from Thailand, ie. do you have to commence the outward sector from your country of residence ? Indeed will travel companies issue a ticket for a journey commencing in another country ??

just asking

I suspect that even if the phone was blocked - a quick trip to MBK mall would have it sorted.

Its bloody amazing how people attitudes change from when you buy the phone and they are kissing ass and even registered the IMIE number "just in case, as you can't be too careful out there" and now - nobody gives a rats arse and all seem to be pre-programmed with the phrase "cannot Mister"

There has been zero activity on the phone (according to dashboard) for 3 days now and I am starting to suspect the phone has been sold and is sitting in a shop window somewhere.

The shop could tell instantly that the phone does not belong to whoever was trying to sell it as the facebook and gmail accounts were inaccessible (we changed the password) and the chat programmes were mentioning another name etc etc... and hundreds of pictures (mostly self portraits) of the original owner spread all over various programmes on the phone. So assuming they realised that its possibly a stolen phone - did they ask for proof of ownership or just reduce the offered price by 50% and say no more? Of course it was the latter.

All that trauma (for us) results in a 'jackpot' for the thief of a thousand or possibly 2 thousand baht.

Without any further proof to support our suspicions on the crooked man in uniform, we have succumbed and like most things here - been drained of energy in our efforts and retired from the race.

Facing 'brick walls' at every turn and the fact that nobody gives a flying f*** about anything or anyone - there is little more that we can do.

Went to truemove today and explained the situation and that the thief is now using a true move sim and gave them the phone IMIE number - but (as expected) they told me there is nothing they could do

Not being au-fait with phones, sim cards and IMIE numbers I don't know if she meant 'couldn't do' as in physically, or morally.

I always thought an IMIE number was personal to a particular phone and that if that phone was transmitting a signal then they could trace it and retrieve the number used and possibly even block the phone (until the user pays 200 baht at MBK to get it 'unblocked')

Samsung gave me the same negative "cannot Mister" reply.

No wonder phone theft is so bloody common here !

Had a similar laptop. Rather expensive Acer (when new). Battery was dead, speakers shot, H/D completely useless and video card gone. In addition the DvD drive wasn't working. The cost of repairing it was phenomenal and even when working it would still be 5 year old technology. Considering a brand name laptop starts at about 10,000 baht now.

Got 500 baht for it in Pantip 2 or 3 months ago Which is probably 450 baht more than it was worth.

Several shops will take it off your hands for a similar amount.

The hotel has 55 rooms. If they had 100% occupancy you can say (for the sake of argument) that perhaps half the rooms decided to use the 'safety' boxes. With an estimated 3 million value stolen - that equates to about 27 safety boxes each averaging contents inside of 111,000 baht.

Not making any accusations here but it does seem rather an excessive amount.

Most guests will put a passport, tickets and perhaps a mobile phone inside.

Just saying...............

You can have one law or one million laws - it makes no difference unless you enforce them

The problem is that everyone here in Thailand knows that laws mean nothing.

It's got to the point where its not even worth reading or listening to 'new law' announcements as we all know it's never going to happen

The rot is set way too deep.

When you see the 'law enforcers' breaking the laws - what incentive is there for the 'little people' ??

go to http://www.samsungdive.com/DiveMain.do

Thanks for the link. It is very similar to the avast anti theft I have on my own phone.

I thought the stolen phone had it too - but found out it wasn't installed correctly (It's quite a complicated procedure) but would have saved a lot of heartache if I had only checked first instead of just assuming.

The samsung version in your link is just as good - but of course it needs installing on the mobile phone BEFORE it is stolen / missing.

Advice to all - get one of the many (free) anti-theft programmes on your phone TODAY. Don't wait until its too late.

Sounds like the bag was handed to the police intact and one of them decided he needed a shiny new Samsung phone.... And left the other worthless stuff in the bag

The OP stated that the bag was stolen. So for someone to steal it, and then turn it in to the Police intact seems odd. I assumed the original thief took the phone, and maybe some other valuables, then discarded the bag. Someone found the bag then turned it in to the Police.

I guess if the bag was lost, rather than stolen, then someone finding it might turn it in to the Police intact.

The bag was STOLEN. I and my friend were walking along a busy pavement near Macro when one of the dozens of motorbikes allowed(?) to ride on the pavement came past - snatched the bag and zoomed off. I shouted at them and gave chase but of course even a 100cc motorbike is faster than me. Nothing - absolutely nothing was missing when we got the bag back - except the phone (only 6000 baht samsung) and a 200 baht pair of sunglasses. Everything else was there. Keys, atm cards bank books even a BTS rabbit card all still there.

The theft happened at 2.25pm and at 5pm somebody claiming to be from the police called to relatives and said they had found my friends bag. The call was NOT from the police station we made the report to.

When you get a new / unfamiliar phone you tend to press this button and that one to 'see what it does'. I assume somebody foolishy pressed the google maps button on the home page. Prior to that Neither I or my friend had ever been or even heard of this police station - so it was not us (at some previous time). When you press 'google maps' the first thing is does is show your current location - I have tried it on my own phone several times.

So many unanswered questions still open.

If I am lucky enough - they might do it again in the next few days - then the fireworks will start !

Sounds like the bag was handed to the police intact and one of them decided he needed a shiny new Samsung phone.... And left the other worthless stuff in the bag

I am not sure how the bag came into the possession of the police at this stage. The 'official' story they gave was that an officer was on patrol and saw two youths walk past a rubbish bin and toss the bag into it. The officer tried to apprehend them but they escaped, he recovered the bag and took it back to the police station and the following morning we picked it up - personally, minus the phone but the old sim card was in the bag (folded in half). Somebody logged onto Google maps at 7pm - 2 hours after the police recovered the bag - and the google location shows at xxx police station. At 9.30pm they changed the 'android settings' (which means they tried altering something or perhaps this was when they changed the sim?). The following day somebody used the phone internet to look at a porn site and then all was quiet until a few days ago when a female began using whatsap - obviously unaware that although she has changed her user name - everyone else in the old contacts list can still see her. This case is till ongoing and I am monitoring the situation daily.

Questions running through my mind are: why would the thieves who were on a motorbike walk around a busy area carrying a womans handbag, why would they casually throw it into a bin (indeed you very rarely even see any bins in Bangkok) and why did the patrol officer not chase on his motorbike if they were merely walking/running. (I have never seen a policeman walk anywhere on patrol they all use motorbikes). Why was the old sim card still in the bag not in the nearest sewer drain ?

Most modern CCTV systems are now computer based with images stored on Hard Drive. To take away the 'recording' from the CCTV - he would need to dis-assemble the computer case and remove the Hard Drive. Surely this would be in the back office somewhere?

It may be possible they had a pre-historic CCTV system that runs on VHS tapes - in which case he can remove the tape in 2 seconds !

Also usually safety boxes have a twin key system or if one key - only the user has the key and if they lose the key they change the lock. However we don't know what they use there and of course it is possible that they were forced, in which case they can't have been very strong 'safety boxes'.

Room safes are usually cheap and nasty things and I have been to hotels where the room safe is not even secured to anything solid - just sat inside the wardrobe/closet.

Any form of security is only as good as the weakest link. No point having CCTV if the recording hardware is not in a secure room somewhere!

no doubt more info will be forthcoming and it will be interesting.

I might send a WhatsApp! message saying some thing like this (in Thai and English), "Thank you for recovering my phone, I would like to give you x,000 baht when we meet to return my phone." Maybe send that to the TrueMove number as an SMS.

And once the Police report is filed, make a copy along any/all details (IMEI) then go to TrueMove and ask them to either help locate the phone, or disable the service.

Thats a good idea about sending a message and offering a reward. I would like to think that nobody would be stupid enough to believe that crap and meet me - but then I remembered where I am - and money is king here.

I can't send it as an sms as I don't have the new sim card number (yet) - only that its a true move sim

I have to say that since opening this thread last night I have received some astounding tips and ideas. (Thank you)

Retrospectively I would add my ideas to everyone else and install one of the free anti-theft apps from people like avast or avg. I wish I had done so and could have completely disabled my phone or lots of other things, without the thief knowing.

At the moment I am still trying to find out why the last time google maps was opened - it shows the location as the police station who allegedly 'found' the bag WITHOUT a phone inside

Somebody opened google maps on that phone from that location - it wasn't me or my friend (the phone owner) and I am quite sure it wasn't the original thief - the list narrows down pretty small now. Who could it be ??????????????!!!

They did not wipe the phone, only using a new sim.

As long you don't deinstall whatsapp, or delete the old account in whatsapp settings, it doesn't matter, what sim you use, whatsapp works on the details, you got the confirmation sms to!

Don't know, if you have latitude active, but:

Your IMEI Number is in your google dashboard available.

Usually it shouldn't be a problem, for the police, to get the information to the cell phone provider and get the information from them, which number/provider is used, now. Maybe you can see the now used provider besides the info about your 'android device', so it's easier, a bit.

And in which area (cell) the cell-phone is using the service.

Have you been to the police, already? Don't think so, b/c also your provider has the IMEI, and could easily find the cell. if wanted (from the provider) and got ordered bey the police. (I think, if wanted, again)

Your friend is Thai? Maybe a better chance.

http://imei-number.com/stolen-phone/

I have 'recovered' the imei number and apparently they are now using true move. (Thanks google dashboard)

Yes of course we reported the theft within 30 minutes but it made laurel and hardy look like einstein.

They firstly argued which police station we should report it too, then nobody wanted to make the report. "It's not my job", "I am busy " (Playing computer chess), "the man you need is not here at the moment"

I agree that if they wanted to - they could actually investigate this case and ask the phone company to supply the information, but we all know it will never happen, even though I now have a picture of the thief (or their friend) as they were stupid enough to use their own picture when they changed the whatsapp profile picture.

Yes the victim is Thai - but I think that is possibly a disadvantage sometimes, as they tend not to shout and scream as we farangs would (well I would / did) - they bring out the 'kreng Jai' card !

I just want the police to do what we (the taxpayers) pay them to do - I know, doesn't even deserve a reply to that one.!

Thank you for that very informative tip. I was astounded at how much of your history and information is collected and stored in there. Unfortunately there is no 'Latitude' information for the stolen phone at all - not even a sub-title for latitude on that website page. (Although I know it works because I checked the details for MY phone and its shows latitude). I am not sure why its not there for the stolen phone.

Interestingly though - it told me that the "Android System Settings' for the stolen phone were updated on 7 Jan at 2130 hrs. Which is 6 hours AFTER the phone was stolen.( to be expected) It also tells me that the last time there was activity on the google side of things was 2122hrs last night (Tuesday 15th) so it proves that someone somewhere is using it. Also it said that it was a True Move mobile number - which is strange as the 'victim' used AIS / 1-2-call, so perhaps it is telling me that the thief's new sim is a True move sim?

The final thing which has really really got me confused is that under the heading "Web History/Maps" - the last search carried out showed the police station where we dealt with the police, who had called us and informed us they had found some of my friends belonings/ID card etc. Up until the theft neither of us had either heard nor visited this police station - so why would either of us previously do a search for it (or need to) and for that search to be the last time anyone used the google maps app. The only time we needed to know where was this police station located was AFTER the phone was stolen ! Now I am really getting suspicious !

Had a very expensive learning curve this week as my friend had her bag stolen in Bkk containing a Samsung smart phone.

It had Avast anti-virus installed and I thought had Avast anti-theft also (it did, but not properly, as we found out to our cost)

Having accepted the phone has gone, a few days ago we began to hear from friends that my friend was still showing online with whatsapp chat programme, although her profile picture had changed, amazingly - to a portrait of what we think is the thief or friend of the thief. After monitoring this (from another phone) we have seen the 'thief' go online and offline several times per day so we know they are still actively using my friends whatsapp account and I think they may have possibly changed their user name but this will only show on their (stolen) phone because on other phones the user name is still my friends name (the victim) so we can assume its stored on each persons individual phone, according to what they have written themselves.

My question is - knowing the thief is actively using whatsapp (for the moment) is there any way possible of finding out the originators number or any other information which would give us a clue to the thiefs identity?

We will try asking the police to ask the mobile operator - but have been here long enough not to hold any expectations, especially after seeing the way they 'dealt' with the original theft last week.

It seems I have one chance (albeit small) to use this opportunity to my advantage to chase the thief but not being familiar with whatapp (I never used it after installing it on my phone) - I am hoping that someone more 'techie' might give me some advice.

I tried the 'view contact info' button and it displays a phone number, but oddly enough its my friend's (the victims) number - which we know is obsolete as we know the thief has changed the sim, so can assume its just recording the original phone number in the programme of when the app was first installed and not updating with the new (thiefs) sim or mobile number.

Apart from trying to get the police to be interested, it's also an option to send a message myself and try to 'entice' the thief to give away some information which might give us more clues. Has anyone any experience in this kind of thing ?

It's not so much a case of getting the phone back - it's pretty depressing knowing that we can see the thief using the phone every day - and there is nothing we can do about it (or is there) ?

I would love to track them down and ........

I use a Powerock 7600mah dual usb output battery pack. About 3 inches square and get 2.5 charges on my Galaxy S3

Price is 3900 in most stores in Bangkok - however I managed to find one in Powerbuy - Central Chidlom for 2390, may have been an error, don't know, not my problem !

I love it and when you have a power hungry smart phone - it's the answer to your prayers.

I had the same problem on my S3. The Samsung Technicians didn't have a clue.

By chance, I tried it on another of my PCs, both had the same windows 7 OS - however the second one loaded and recognised it and displayed it right away.

Now I just had to find what one had which the other didn't.

The answer was easy..........

One had windows 7 and would not recognise my phone

The other had windows 7 WITH SP1 and worked perfectly

There was the answer !

Many people here have trouble even counting up to ten - so how the hell does a som-tam seller manufacture a home made gun that actually works and fires (whatever it fires)

I am sure these things don't resemble a Glock or Smith & Wesson - but to manufacture a working firearm, is pretty impressive and sure as hell knocks spots off a slingshot and lead ball !