Burglaries, police inactivity force Canadian/Thai couple out of Thailand - they had 1M baht at home "waiting for exchange rate to improve"

 

 

The Thai wife of a Canadian man has told the media that they are fed up with Thailand and are selling up and leaving.

 

Specifically they are upset about burglaries at their gated housing estate in Rayong and angry with the Thai police for not getting any results.

 

Now they have hired a lawyer to get back some of a million baht in cash that was stolen earlier this month.

 

They had 40,000 Canadian dollars in a bedroom stolen. The wife said they were waiting for the poor exchange rate to improve.

 

Now they are off back to Canada - though online stats suggest that burglaries may be worse there than Thailand.

 

Deuanpen, 40, spoke to Daily News at the couple's house in a private estate in Ban Chang, Rayong.

 

She and her husband Robert, 59, were pictured in front of a "for sale" sign. He was smiling but the couple had little to be happy about.

 

She said that her husband is a businessman and she runs a salon. On February 1st a man climbed over the wall of the housing estate and cut his way into the rear of their property. He was dressed like a company employee might be. (How she knew all this was not explained in the story, notes Thaivisa).

 

From a bedroom he stole the following: $40,000 Canadian dollars, $40 US dollars, 30,000 baht and 10,000 Yen, a phone and travel accessories - she said it was all worth a million baht.

 

"We had a large amount of cash in the house because we were waiting for the poor exchange rate to improve," she told Daily News. They had gone on a trip to Pattaya while their house was burgled.

 

She said there had been other burglaries in the estate - 8 baht weight in gold (about 175,000 baht value) was stolen from a house and a teacher opposite lost 4,000 baht.

 

"My husband thought that buying an expensive house would mean we would also get good security," she said.

 

She said that the Bang Chang police came round but after more than two weeks their investigations have got nowhere. When she asked about progress in the case she said they spoke in an unfriendly manner, acted like they didn't care and said they were busy with lots of other cases.

 

The couple are so fed up that they plan to sell the house and leave and go to Canada, she said.

 

Now they have hired the services of lawyer Khomsan Chemchoi who is looking into suing the housing estate and security company in an effort to get back the couple's lost money.

 

He is examining agreements with the estate and also plans to press the police to act in the case.

 

Whether Canada would be safer than Thailand regarding burglary is a moot point, notes Thaivisa. Online statistics from the World Data Atlas suggest that in 2010 Canada had 578 burglaries per 100,000 people. In the same year knoema.com suggested the Thai rate was just 9.6 per 100,000.

 

And the Thai burglary rate had almost halved by 2016.

 

Source: Daily News

 

 

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9 minutes ago, webfact said:

She and her husband Robert, 59,

"On February 1st a man climbed over the wall of the housing estate and cut his way into the rear of their property. He was dressed like a company employee might be. (How she knew all this was not explained in the story, notes Thaivisa)."

 

  Key quote.

  

Much as I dislike keeping large chunks of money in Thai banks, they are a lot safer than having 1,000,000 in the house in cash. One has to ask who else knew the money was there? Many burglaries are the result of inside information after all.

12 minutes ago, webfact said:

waiting for the poor exchange rate to improve.

 

14 minutes ago, webfact said:

Specifically they are upset about burglaries at their gated housing estate in Rayong and angry with the Thai police for not getting any results

While the police said they were upset for not getting any.

Inconsistent story.

So many "business men" in Thailand. Wow. Being such a "business man", the Canadian should know that he can open a foreign currency account and avoid hiding his money under a pillow.

Good luck elsewhere. If they want to move each time they are victims of a theft, then there'll be not many countries left after a couple of years.

3 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

She is 40, he is 59, hardly up there with the likes of Anna Nicole and Howard Marshall. 

 

1 minute ago, darksidedog said:

Much as I dislike keeping large chunks of money in Thai banks, they are a lot safer than having 1,000,000 in the house in cash. One has to ask who else knew the money was there? Many burglaries are the result of inside information after all.

A few years ago we had stuff going missing around the house. Petty cash that was not the amount I remembered and even a beer going missing from the fridge. We bought an alarm clock spycam from Pantip. It was incredible. There were 2 separate thieves, both who we knew very well. One one occasion they even came to steal at the same time and shocked each other, then got into an argument. We confronted them directly, and it stopped. Just shocking the brazen-ness of some people.

 

 Best of luck to this couple.

I would change my name from Rob.

it might help!

18 minutes ago, webfact said:

They had gone on a trip to Pattaya while their house was burgled.

That was very obliging of them! 

Just now, ianezy0 said:

I would change my name from Rob.

it might help!

  I'm thinking about creating several new TVF identities just so I can like this several more times.  Bravo!  

"My husband thought that buying an expensive house would mean we would also get good security," she said.

 

Lol. Look at that house. Cheap ass house I think she means. Which means sleeping security guard at best.

Never keep that which you cannot afford to lose in an unsecured location.

6 minutes ago, gravity101 said:

"My husband thought that buying an expensive house would mean we would also get good security," she said.

 

Lol. Look at that house. Cheap ass house I think she means. Which means sleeping security guard at best.

  It may very well be expensive by her previous standard of living.  Just sayin'.  

Apart from the odd 100bht my gf has lifted from my wallet at night, never had anything stolen from my home in Thailand.

If I kept cash at home, it would at least have been put in a small safe.

 

40k in a drawer ......... madness.

I would have suspected my gf/wife.

"My husband thought that buying an expensive house would mean we would also get good security," she said.

 

Hard to really tell, but that house looks far from expensive to me.

39 minutes ago, webfact said:

Now they have hired the services of lawyer Khomsan Chemchoi who is looking into suing the housing estate and security company in an effort to get back the couple's lost money.

The problem with claiming stolen cash is how can they prove exactly how much was stolen?  It could have been a much smaller amount...but why not just claim it was a million baht!

Bizarre story and it seems like quite a few inaccuracies or truths. 

13 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Apart from the odd 100bht my gf has lifted from my wallet at night, never had anything stolen from my home in Thailand.

If I kept cash at home, it would at least have been put in a small safe.

 

40k in a drawer ......... madness.

I would have suspected my gf/wife.

Absolutely definitely an inside job.

Get hubby back to Canada so the family can spend the stolen cash without any questions being asked

7 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Apart from the odd 100bht my gf has lifted from my wallet at night,

Mine would be shown the door if that ever happened

Buying a house in Thailand and keeping $40 k in the house, can't fix stupid.

4 minutes ago, petermik said:

Mine would be shown the door if that ever happened

Yeah, but mine was a tart I found in a bar, while yours was an university educated, age appropriate lady from a wealthy Thai/Chinese family ........... I got what I paid for!

Edited February 20, 20206 yr by BritManToo

Never leave your valuables in the bedroom!  It is the 1st place they will look.

 

 

I'd check with her grinning husband I mean brother on the right first.

If this story is true, i think the Canadian man should look closer to home.

Why would any person in their right mind keep a large amount of cash in the house?

They just happened to be away at the exact time, family, you know the brother, ???????? or another relative, who knew there was cash left in the house.

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks".

The good news is I have found a very secure hiding place in my house the bad news is there's nowt to put in it???? 

55 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

She is 40, he is 59, hardly up there with the likes of Anna Nicole and Howard Marshall. 

i was referring to his physical appearance.

 

i am very judgemental that way.

Edited February 20, 20206 yr by NCC1701A

Were they not going back to Canada anyway?..........changing the money.

2 hours ago, darksidedog said:

Much as I dislike keeping large chunks of money in Thai banks, they are a lot safer than having 1,000,000 in the house in cash. One has to ask who else knew the money was there? Many burglaries are the result of inside information after all.

My first reaction - I've never been aware of any burglaries in my area. I'm guessing they were tall poppies and that someone knew the game.

 

Certainly fitting security bars won't stop someone who wants to get in, and I wouldn't bother breaking into a house without them...

Edited February 20, 20206 yr by ben2talk