Arabs have 300,000 baht stolen from the safe - hotel gives them 5,000 baht compensation

 

 

Thai Channel 7 TV reported on a story of two safes being removed from two hotel rooms in the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok last Friday.

 

A total of 300,000 baht was missing along with passports and documents.

 

But the hotel were only obliged to give the victims 5,000 baht in compensation according to the law.

 

The rest would be up for discussion, said Channel 7.

 

Lumpini police are on the case studying CCTV.

 

There was no forced entry to the rooms but both safes were ripped out and removed.

 

The occupants - tourists from the United Arab Emirates - were due to leave Thailand yesterday but have delayed their departure pending the resolution of the case.

 

As is usual in such cases, the hotel concerned was not named.

 

Source: Channel 7 TV

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-04-18

years ago i checked into a hotel in Bkk and asked if there was a safe in the room and was told no. About 10 mins later there was a knock on the door and it was one of the maids, an old lady who was skinny as a rake and wouldn't have weighed more than 40 kgs. She was carry a small electronic safe and placed it into the wardrobe. Needless to say i didn't use it!

scam

29 minutes ago, taichiplanet said:

years ago i checked into a hotel in Bkk and asked if there was a safe in the room and was told no. About 10 mins later there was a knock on the door and it was one of the maids, an old lady who was skinny as a rake and wouldn't have weighed more than 40 kgs. She was carry a small electronic safe and placed it into the wardrobe. Needless to say i didn't use it!

 

And if it operates by numbered buttons you can find many cases where hotel staff have used a specific type of paper to collect the oil from fingertips to indicate which buttons have most recently been used. From there they try various configurations of the 4 (?) buttons until they crack the password code. 

 

Regardless, I have stayed in several hundred hotels when I was a regional consultant, I never ever leave any valuables, documents whatever in any hotel room.

 

Stories abound about professional thieves knowing many simple ways to get into hotel rooms etc, and many times when I have been at the hotel reception desk checking in / out I have observed that everybody has access to the machine that codes the key cards.

 

Plus regardless of keys or key cards, how many hotel staff have duplicates, pass keys / cards, or can easily borrow them?

 

How many times have you observed sets of keys on the room maids trolley, left unattended while she's inside a room or while she's gone to another floor to get more new shampoo bottles or whatever?

 

One time when I was in Jakarta I asked to see  a suite at a five star hotel near my office because I needed a room for myself and with a room for small meetings for the next 3 months. The very over-confident young lady from the hotel reception (who told me several times that she can speak Japanese, meaningless since I am very obviously caucasian) took me to a suite, she used a pass key and we walked in to discover that the room was already occupied with a man, his wife and 2 kids all sleeping.

 

This didn't phase the reception lady she just indicated to be quiet and silently indicated to come to another room (in the same suite) to take a look.

 

I quickly walked out back to the hallway and asked the hotel lady if she knew the suite was already occupied? Her response: "of course, it's OK, I'm sure the guests already in the room don't mind".

 

I told my local staff to quickly find another hotel for us to view their suites. 

 

 

Every time a hotel room is robbed, it is always a very large amount of cash that is stolen.

We never see reports of thefts of only a couple of thousand, always hundreds of thousands, same with so- called baggage thefts.

9 minutes ago, scorecard said:

Regardless, I have stayed in several hundred hotels when I was a regional consultant, I never ever leave any valuables, documents whatever in any hotel room.

 

Stories abound about professional thieves knowing many simple ways to get into hotel rooms etc, and many times when I have been at the hotel reception desk checking in / out I have observed that everybody has access to the machine that codes the key cards.

 

Plus regardless of keys or key cards, how many hotel staff have duplicates, pass keys / cards, or can easily borrow them?

 

Screwed if you do, damned if you don't.  Carry your valuables on your person and you'll be derided for being an idiot if you get mugged with all that loot.   Leave them in your hotel room, and you'll be derided as an idiot for trusting the hotel safe and staff. 

 

Ya just can't win.

 

Edit:  The good thing about stories like this (and personal experiences like scorecard's) is that they serve as a cautionary tale- and a data point to make your own decision...

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

The occupants - tourists from the United Arab Emirates - were due to leave Thailand yesterday but have delayed their departure pending the resolution of the case.

I would have thought having their passports stolen would have delayed that ! 

2 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Screwed if you do, damned if you don't.  Carry your valuables on your person and you'll be derided for being an idiot if you get mugged with all that loot.   Leave them in your hotel room, and you'll be derided as an idiot for trusting the hotel safe and staff. 

 

Ya just can't win.

 

 

Good point, in fact when I was continuously travelling all of Asia (and beyond) I rationalized what I carried with me.

 

I instructed staff in all locations to not give me hard copies of documents (unless originals were critical for some reason) just send them using the company secure e-mail system.

 

I always had my passport, cash and my credit cards and watch on me, none of them expensive. I never had more than say the equivalent of US$300 cash on me, and I instructed all my offices to always have extra cash available for travelling staff, if needed.

 

I also gave the accountant in each office the responsibility to contact the accountant in the home office to promptly make credit card payments if needed for travelling staff.

 

Quickly one of the local accountants refused to make a CC payment for one of the local consultants who was away from home and had needed to use her credit card more than expected. That accountant didn't receive an annual pay rise at the end of the year. Nobody tried the 'not my responsibility' card again.

 

I planned ahead what clothes I needed to carry, nothing much extra and no super expensive suits etc.

 

I issued quidelines to all travelling staff to rationalize what they carry, leave nothing in the room and to check every time that hotel doors were locked from the inside and to avoid leaving the hotel room when the maid or other service staff were present. 

 

 

If you have insurance your valuables should be locked in the safe..and you should then be able to claim,if you take your valuables with you and you are robbed you have nothing to come.......

Don't trust these safes.

 

 

5 minutes ago, petermik said:

If you have insurance your valuables should be locked in the safe..and you should then be able to claim,if you take your valuables with you and you are robbed you have nothing to come.......

 

In theory, but how do you prove you put 300,000 baht cash, a 30,000 baht IPhone and a 500,000 baht Rolex in the safe?

 

30 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Every time a hotel room is robbed, it is always a very large amount of cash that is stolen.

We never see reports of thefts of only a couple of thousand, always hundreds of thousands, same with so- called baggage thefts.

Of course. who writes a news article about  $14.85 stolen? 

I can just see it,

 Thieves leave sympathy note with "you need it more than we do" and $5  after they break in to safe and find only .45 cents in it !! LOL

Just now, impulse said:

 

In theory, but how do you prove you put 300,000 baht cash, a 30,000 baht IPhone and a 500,000 baht Rolex in the safe?

 

Where else should you leave your valuables then? 

45 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

And if it operates by numbered buttons you can find many cases where hotel staff have used a specific type of paper to collect the oil from fingertips to indicate which buttons have most recently been used. From there they try various configurations of the 4 (?) buttons until they crack the password code.

10,000 possible combinations for 4 digit lock. You'd want to be patient.

12 minutes ago, jenny2017 said:

Where else should you leave your valuables then? 

 

That's the $64,000 question.   Mostly, I leave everything I don't need at home. 

 

But that leaves me with my passport, a few thousand $ USD emergency cash, and a laptop -at the least.  I keep the $$$ stashed inside the lining of my carry on, where someone has to make same effort to find it and steal it, but that's not much better than hiding it between the mattresses (though I'd never forget it stashed in my carry-on, while I am subject to lapses in memory if I were to hide it anywhere in the room, including the safe). 

 

The point is that there is nowhere you can really secure your valuables when traveling.  (Unless you can leave them in your jet on the tarmac- and even then...)  Best to leave them behind unless you need them.

 

2 minutes ago, giddyup said:

10,000 possible combinations for 4 digit lock. You'd want to be patient.

 

If you know all 4 digits from the oil spots, but not the order they're in, it's 4^4 = 256 combinations.  That's doable in a few minutes.

 

52 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Every time a hotel room is robbed, it is always a very large amount of cash that is stolen.

We never see reports of thefts of only a couple of thousand, always hundreds of thousands, same with so- called baggage thefts.

Maybe just maybe because its not newsworthy otherwise.

 

I understand what you mean, you think amounts are inflated.. possible too.. but only the large amounts are newsworthy.

7 minutes ago, giddyup said:

10,000 possible combinations for 4 digit lock. You'd want to be patient.

Or some zeros...........

 

   

 

3 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

If you know all 4 digits from the oil spots, but not the order they're in, it's 4^4 = 256 combinations.  That's doable in a few minutes.

 

Or press 6 times 0.....

9 minutes ago, jenny2017 said:

Or press 6 times 0.....

 

I'm looking forward to hearing from one of the 100's of guys who just watched that video and tried it out on their room safe, just for giggles.

 

Surely that's got to be a feature of that one brand?  Though I imagine each brand has to offer the hotel staff a way in when people forget stuff in the hotel safe when they leave...

 

 

19 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

If you know all 4 digits from the oil spots, but not the order they're in, it's 4^4 = 256 combinations.  That's doable in a few minutes.

 

If all 4 digits are known then there will only be 24 combinations . 4x3x2x1 (I think)

Looks like a possible exaggerated claim shaggy Arab story to me  did they steal the tee towels and pillow cases as this may point to an inside job.  

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

I would have thought having their passports stolen would have delayed that ! 

Only for as long as it takes their Embassy to issue ETDs!

54 minutes ago, jenny2017 said:

Where else should you leave your valuables then? 

locked suitcase

47 minutes ago, giddyup said:

10,000 possible combinations for 4 digit lock. You'd want to be patient.

As it's random there's as much chance of getting lucky the first time as the 10,000th time so patience may not be necessary!

11 minutes ago, Just Weird said:

As it's random there's as much chance of getting lucky the first time as the 10,000th time so patience may not be necessary!

With my luck it would be the 10,000th try.

Hotel safety deposit boxes (behind the front desk) is preferable to a room safe providing they allow you to attach your own lock in addition to theirs...

But for a large sum or valuable item, get the hotel to put it in their safe and for the duty manager to issue a receipt (obviously to count any cash first, etc.).  This may not be an option for small hotels/guesthouses of course.

When working in Cuba a few years ago one of our welders kept a large stack of CUC's, like dollars, in a safe. He noticed that money was slowly going missing and he was sure it was not him when he was drunk so he set up a CCTV and caught one of the cleaning guys taking a few bills red handed. The Cubans did nothing even with the evidence. I also think that 300,000 is a little excessive for a holiday to Thailand since these Arabs were surely muslims and of course did not drink or partake of female company which would be against the koran??

So much to on shore sharks 

3 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

Good point, in fact when I was continuously travelling all of Asia (and beyond) I rationalized what I carried with me.

 

I instructed staff in all locations to not give me hard copies of documents (unless originals were critical for some reason) just send them using the company secure e-mail system.

 

I always had my passport, cash and my credit cards and watch on me, none of them expensive. I never had more than say the equivalent of US$300 cash on me, and I instructed all my offices to always have extra cash available for travelling staff, if needed.

 

I also gave the accountant in each office the responsibility to contact the accountant in the home office to promptly make credit card payments if needed for travelling staff.

 

Quickly one of the local accountants refused to make a CC payment for one of the local consultants who was away from home and had needed to use her credit card more than expected. That accountant didn't receive an annual pay rise at the end of the year. Nobody tried the 'not my responsibility' card again.

 

I planned ahead what clothes I needed to carry, nothing much extra and no super expensive suits etc.

 

I issued quidelines to all travelling staff to rationalize what they carry, leave nothing in the room and to check every time that hotel doors were locked from the inside and to avoid leaving the hotel room when the maid or other service staff were present. 

 

 

Just to expand slightly on what scorecard was saying above, your valuables don't stop at physical items. Be very cautious of what you have on your laptops and tablets and where, and how you leave them in your hotel rooms. Whether it be company related or sensitive personal data; this can be a nightmare if exploited for many. Analog ransomware if available to exploit.

 

If you are a regular traveller, think about more security than just a Windows password, this can be bypassed within 2 minutes (depending on your boot time) by anyone who knows what they are doing. Fingerprint scanners IMO lead people into a false sense of security because of the built in bypass options in place. Think encryption.

 

Be careful out there..................