Yesterday I took my kids who are visiting from the US to Central Festival. As we entered the supermarket on the ground floor my teenage daughter grabbed a hand carry basket and placed her small purse in it. At the check out counter she noticed that the purse was missing.

 

My wife went to the Customer Service counter to ask if anyone had turned it in. Within minutes they were reviewing tapes from the security cameras and informed us that a male customer had taken the purse from the basket and passed it to a female who put it in her own larger purse. A few minutes later they informed us that the thieves had checked out using a credit card and were identified. They took our number and assured us that the thieves would be caught.

 

In the meantime my daughter wasn't overly concerned because she only had about $20 in the wallet along with a debit card which she immediately cancelled and an easily replaced drivers license.

 

We were shocked when she got a call that the thief was at the store ready to return the wallet less than 2 hours later! They apparently located the hotel they were staying in and informed them that they were on video record taking the wallet. The thieves, a farang/Thai couple residing in Europe, rushed to return the wallet intact to avoid prosecution during their holiday.

 

My daughter was given the option of filing charges but chose to let them go to minimize the percentage of her vacation time spent in Police stations (they wouldn't have gotten off so lightly were it me).

 

But in any case we were pleasantly surprised by the quick and efficient security and defective work done by Central Festival security! Job well done and thank you!

That was an interesting story. You were lucky. I hope your teenage daughter realises now that a shopping basket is not the place to hold her purse.

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A few minutes later they informed us that the thieves had checked out using a credit card and were identified.

 

Do you mean that they had paid for their shopping in Central Festival with a credit card or checked out of their hotel with a credit card?

 

I wonder how they found out which hotel they were staying at? Perhaps they used a Thai card.

 

 

 

38 minutes ago, KneeDeep said:

 

Do you mean that they had paid for their shopping in Central Festival with a credit card or checked out of their hotel with a credit card?

 

I wonder how they found out which hotel they were staying at? Perhaps they used a Thai card.

They (stupidly under the circumstances) paid for their purchase at Central Festival with a credit card giving away their Identity. I don't know how their hotel was identified so quickly, from the credit card or from check in with their passport, but Central Festival security apparently knew it in ~1 hour.

A lesson to all of us

 

Interesting that it was a farang & a Thai   

Woman, (who are resident in Europe)

What a couple of "Scum-bags" they are, whether they were charged or not, they should have been immediately taken to the airport, deported, having had both their passports stamped.....never to return again.....

Indeed. Disgusting lowlife scum.

Just shows that the police takes theft seriously now , there are some good cops out there.

8 hours ago, DD13 said:

A lesson to all of us

 

Interesting that it was a farang & a Thai   

Woman, (who are resident in Europe)

What a couple of "Scum-bags" they are, whether they were charged or not, they should have been immediately taken to the airport, deported, having had both their passports stamped.....never to return again.....

they cannot deport a thai citizen from Thailand. probably she has two citizenship(thai+Eu). For the lady, the punishment could be jail.

btw my gf works in central and the theft issue happens a lot, almost every week. the statistics shows that the burglars are thai and farangs in equal ratio. 

2 hours ago, balo said:

Just shows that the police takes theft seriously now , there are some good cops out there.

Good luck trying to find a good one when you need one.

 

The "good" in this story comes from the security at Central doing a good job. They are the ones "asking" the police to investigate.

12 minutes ago, tropo said:

Good luck trying to find a good one when you need one.

 

The "good" in this story comes from the security at Central doing a good job. They are the ones "asking" the police to investigate.

Agreed. Central Festival security seems to be well connected to someone in the Police force or government willing and able to investigate. I have no doubt that the result would have been quite different if we had gone to the police directly.

18 hours ago, KneeDeep said:

 

Do you mean that they had paid for their shopping in Central Festival with a credit card or checked out of their hotel with a credit card?

 

I wonder how they found out which hotel they were staying at? Perhaps they used a Thai card.

Their names will be in the immigration database so this could be matched to the credit card they paid with. Not too hard to work out. Amateur thieves... why not pay cash?!

 

I still would have tried to squeeze a bit of money out of the scumbags for my troubles getting new documents and to teach them a bit of a lesson.

 

Edit: So after cancelling her documents, op's daughter didn't really gain anything from the returned purse apart from the purse itself, right?

15 hours ago, DD13 said:

A lesson to all of us

 

Interesting that it was a farang & a Thai   

Woman, (who are resident in Europe)

What a couple of "Scum-bags" they are, whether they were charged or not, they should have been immediately taken to the airport, deported, having had both their passports stamped.....never to return again.....

I'm not a expert, but can a Thai have her passport stamped "never to return" assuming of course she

had a Thai passport. 

PS good job by security and a happy outcome beyond the pain of getting a new debit card issued.

8 hours ago, shy coconut said:

I'm not a expert, but can a Thai have her passport stamped "never to return" assuming of course she

had a Thai passport. 

From a previous post it seems she cannot be stamped or deported

 

The OP states that they reside in Europe so I imagine she does have a passport

So she should be put in the "clink" & the "euro low life" slung out

immediately

 

Leopards  "can't & won't" change their spots

18 hours ago, yengec said:

they cannot deport a thai citizen from Thailand. probably she has two citizenship(thai+Eu). For the lady, the punishment could be jail.

I beg o disagree, if she came in on her EU Passport, she can be deported and banned from entering using that passport, dual citizenship does not give you a "get out of jail free card"  

 

Only thing wrong with this post is I would have pressed charges against them.that purse didn't and up in their handbag by accident.........they voluntarily screwed up their vacation by taking the purse.

Maybe those T.M.30 forms are actually good for something, it could be as easy as that they used a credit card somewhere in the mall, and was seen on camera using it at the cashier, hence the police has a name to match the person seen taking the purse, and searched it against list of names submitted by hotels

That would have been the time to play Poker.  I agree with the not filing charge thing, but I sure would have hit that falang/Thai couple in the wallet and demanded a pretty large "convenience fee" for not filing charges.  If I was there on a longer trip, I would have filed charges so they get a police record and maybe get kicked out of the country.

On 12/25/2017 at 3:34 PM, ftpjtm said:

They (stupidly under the circumstances) paid for their purchase at Central Festival with a credit card giving away their Identity. I don't know how their hotel was identified so quickly, from the credit card or from check in with their passport, but Central Festival security apparently knew it in ~1 hour.

i suspect they were fairly well known and that is why they were so quickly found.  Or the store checked their computer records of that credit card and it has the information on the people, perhaps from previous uses?

16 hours ago, digbeth said:

Maybe those T.M.30 forms are actually good for something, it could be as easy as that they used a credit card somewhere in the mall, and was seen on camera using it at the cashier, hence the police has a name to match the person seen taking the purse, and searched it against list of names submitted by hotels

Central Festival gave my daughter info on them. They entered on passports from the Netherlands/Thailand. They were staying at a Pattaya hotel. My guess is that someone with access to such things matched the credit card name with the passport used to check into the hotel. It amazes me that Central Festival security would have access to all that. Must have powerful connections.

5 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

That would have been the time to play Poker.  I agree with the not filing charge thing, but I sure would have hit that falang/Thai couple in the wallet and demanded a pretty large "convenience fee" for not filing charges.  If I was there on a longer trip, I would have filed charges so they get a police record and maybe get kicked out of the country.

We had my elderly mother along with us in a wheelchair. I was with her while wife and daughter dealt with all this. If I was present I would have been more harsh towards the thieves, but my daughter was just happy to get her purse back and was perhaps under the influence of Christmas spirit.

in my country(Turkey), doesnt matter the victim complains or not, a public case is opened by the government court against the thieves. As i know this rule applies in EU contries too. In my opinion, it should be the way in Thailand and all countries too. Because the victim usually doesn’t want to get in trouble and lose time by the complaint process.