Teen lost his job because of Covid-19 - stole from Phuket tourists to make ends meet

 

 

Wichit police in Phuket announced the arrest of an 18 year old Thai man from Songkhla after thefts from two tourists at separate hotels last week. 

 

The man was found in possession of 4,000 baht and was wearing the same clothes from one of the thefts. He was taken on a reenactment. 

 

A quantity of money was stolen from a room on the beach on Friday last. Police found footprints in the sand and had a clear CCTV image. 

 

On Sunday the same person stole 16,000 baht from another tourist at a hotel 800 meters away. 

 

The teen said that he had lost his job at a fishery two months ago and had no food to eat and no money for his rent. 

 

He has a wife who is five months pregnant and has to look after a sibling because his mother is in prison.

 

He was also wanted on drug and gun charges. 

 

He was charged with theft at night and detained. 

 

Source: Channel 7

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-04-16

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

Heard of disfuntional families but this guy takes the biscuit

So now he has food and a place rent free behind bars.

I read this while shaking my head and thinking can his situation get any worse. If he was in Australia there is no doubt he would be punished by a slap on the wrist, given a house and his girlfriend and sibling supported. In certain EU countries he would be given a house and a lifetime pension, in the Middle East he would lose a hand and in China might even lose his life. In Thailand he will probably get prison and his sibling and pregnant girlfriend will be left to fend for themselves. In TV land cries would be heard to thrash him, imprison him for life and all the time forgetting why he stole...It is so easy to sit in judgment when you are far away and cannot relate to his situation.

Apple not falling far from the tree......

He might get to share a cell with his mother, later his wife will join them after fleecing a farang.

As for the sibling, good luck in the future

44 minutes ago, PJPom said:

I read this while shaking my head and thinking can his situation get any worse. If he was in Australia there is no doubt he would be punished by a slap on the wrist, given a house and his girlfriend and sibling supported. In certain EU countries he would be given a house and a lifetime pension, in the Middle East he would lose a hand and in China might even lose his life. In Thailand he will probably get prison and his sibling and pregnant girlfriend will be left to fend for themselves. In TV land cries would be heard to thrash him, imprison him for life and all the time forgetting why he stole...It is so easy to sit in judgment when you are far away and cannot relate to his situation.

Another way of looking at it is that he is a habitual criminal and drug taker. The story about the job is a lie to gain sympathy. (Yes - thieves do lie.)

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

He was also wanted on drug and gun charges. 

I think that he would get more than a slap on the wrist. Even in Australia.

4,000 baht on Friday, 16,000 baht on Sunday. Regular thief. Not a desperate man.

He’s a Scumbag and his family of Criminals 

I felt pity,until i read he is also wanted on drug and gun charges so a common criminal, not sure if he gets into the dumbest criminals list,maybe just outside.

5 hours ago, PJPom said:

I read this while shaking my head and thinking can his situation get any worse. If he was in Australia there is no doubt he would be punished by a slap on the wrist, given a house and his girlfriend and sibling supported. In certain EU countries he would be given a house and a lifetime pension, in the Middle East he would lose a hand and in China might even lose his life. In Thailand he will probably get prison and his sibling and pregnant girlfriend will be left to fend for themselves. In TV land cries would be heard to thrash him, imprison him for life and all the time forgetting why he stole...It is so easy to sit in judgment when you are far away and cannot relate to his situation.

At first I was a little sympathetic to him, until I saw the part about being wanted on drug and gun charges! This is a bad guy!

If this lock down continues we are going to see a lot more of this!

7 hours ago, webfact said:

He has a wife who is five months pregnant and has to look after a sibling because his mother is in prison.

He was also wanted on drug and gun charges.

i love close families.

The PhuketNews on this breakin and the thief :

https://www.thephuketnews.com/ao-yon-burglar-arrested-75723.php

 

I wonder if he had a gun with him when he broke in to those places ?  And was the story (about where he spent the money) for sympathy a lie ... when maybe instead it went for drugs?  I speculate there could be lies to try to reduce any punishment. ... Although with Thai prisons pretty crowded, maybe he will get off with parole ?

 

Imagine one being in Thailand in COVID-19 global shutdown (almost) and having your passport and money stolen.  It would not be a pleasant situation to be in, unless you had other 'backup' means of support.

I love a family with ambition 

What was his regular job that he lost? Stealing from restaurants and gymnasiums?

7 hours ago, PJPom said:

I read this while shaking my head and thinking can his situation get any worse. If he was in Australia there is no doubt he would be punished by a slap on the wrist, given a house and his girlfriend and sibling supported. In certain EU countries he would be given a house and a lifetime pension, in the Middle East he would lose a hand and in China might even lose his life. In Thailand he will probably get prison and his sibling and pregnant girlfriend will be left to fend for themselves. In TV land cries would be heard to thrash him, imprison him for life and all the time forgetting why he stole...It is so easy to sit in judgment when you are far away and cannot relate to his situation.

Quite so.

But I do remember telling my son when he reached 14 or 15 years of age, to watch the movie 'Cinderella Man', with Russell Crowe, and Renée Zellweger.

Quite inspiring, where he talks about theft not being an option, even in a dire situation.  Might be other options....

 

8 hours ago, PJPom said:

I read this while shaking my head and thinking can his situation get any worse. If he was in Australia there is no doubt he would be punished by a slap on the wrist, given a house and his girlfriend and sibling supported. In certain EU countries he would be given a house and a lifetime pension, in the Middle East he would lose a hand and in China might even lose his life. In Thailand he will probably get prison and his sibling and pregnant girlfriend will be left to fend for themselves. In TV land cries would be heard to thrash him, imprison him for life and all the time forgetting why he stole...It is so easy to sit in judgment when you are far away and cannot relate to his situation.

But he stole twice within a few days and it is highly likely he has stolen before and would  steal again, that saying of course its difficult there are 28 million asking for help if they all start stealing then what? I know and am helping some family who i know for fact are hard working and find themselves with  no work, they  are not whisky guzzlers and are out looking for bits if work, they didn't ask for help  and they didnt turn to stealing.

I suppose it is irrelevant as many have pointed out that he has form for criminal activity but I remember from school many,many years ago the question in religious lesson, a man stole to feed his starving children, did he commit a sin ?... just a thought...

36 minutes ago, PJPom said:

I suppose it is irrelevant as many have pointed out that he has form for criminal activity but I remember from school many,many years ago the question in religious lesson, a man stole to feed his starving children, did he commit a sin ?... just a thought...

... what does the school many many years ago say about stealing to spend money on gambling like the thief did (according to https://www.thephuketnews.com/ao-yon-burglar-arrested-75723.php ) ?

10 hours ago, PJPom said:

I read this while shaking my head and thinking can his situation get any worse. If he was in Australia there is no doubt he would be punished by a slap on the wrist, given a house and his girlfriend and sibling supported. In certain EU countries he would be given a house and a lifetime pension, in the Middle East he would lose a hand and in China might even lose his life. In Thailand he will probably get prison and his sibling and pregnant girlfriend will be left to fend for themselves. In TV land cries would be heard to thrash him, imprison him for life and all the time forgetting why he stole...It is so easy to sit in judgment when you are far away and cannot relate to his situation.

China don't top people for petty theft.

 

Where on earth did you get that idea?

12 hours ago, webfact said:

The man was found in possession of 4,000 baht and was wearing the same clothes from one of the thefts. He was taken on a reenactment. 

Not good but understandable for desperate actions, still not good. Now he can buy washing detergent for his clothes, after one week it would smell.

A little sympathy..

 

12 hours ago, webfact said:

A quantity of money was stolen from a room on the beach on Friday last. Police found footprints in the sand and had a clear CCTV image. 

Was that the 4000? or more/lesser? Hope the foreigners has a good travel insurance. Anyway he got caught on camera.

 

12 hours ago, webfact said:

On Sunday the same person stole 16,000 baht from another tourist at a hotel 800 meters away. 

Ooh it's getting worse. He then has a lot more in his pocket after Friday.

Again the tourist could has a travel insurance that covers the theft.

And it is not wise to leave such amount of cash open in the hotel.

 

The pitiful thief stole it. Then he is desperate and doing it for a emergency cause...because

 

12 hours ago, webfact said:

The teen said that he had lost his job at a fishery two months ago and had no food to eat and no money for his rent. 

Sympathy and pity growing

 

12 hours ago, webfact said:

He has a wife who is five months pregnant and has to look after a sibling because his mother is in prison.

He need the money for his family, unknowingly what his mother did I have sympathy for him.

 

12 hours ago, webfact said:

He was also wanted on drug and gun charges. 

Lost my sympathy.

No remorse, put him in jail.

 

Wife has to try to make end meet with his sibling, more bad things in the world their world is not ending.

Dump that man and find a good guy.

 

12 hours ago, webfact said:

He was charged with theft at night and detained. 

Won't he be charged if theft happened at daytime ?

 

 

Unknowingly what he stole on Friday, he has spend 12000thb at least already.

An amount of 4000thb was still in his possession.

Hope he is not getting out with a wai and an envelope.

I surely hope his unborn child will never meet him like this and the mother get a better life.

 

24 minutes ago, Metropolitian said:

Again the tourist could has a travel insurance that covers the theft.

And it is not wise to leave such amount of cash open in the hotel.

 

If you compare the Channel-7 news and ThePhuketNews . com articles you will read there are differences wrt the 2nd case. 

 

Channel 7 says the 12-April theft was of a tourist and took place in a hotel. ThePhuketNews says the 12-April theft reported by a Thai woman and it took place in a condominium (not a hotel).  Further in the 2nd case passports were stolen - where I suspect that far worse than the amount in cash taken.   I am not aware of any travel insurance that covers stolen Passports. 

 

And if it was a tourist (as opposed to a Thai woman) in the 12-April case,  now would be a very ugly time to have one's Passport(s) (with a Thai permission to stay inside) stolen. 

 

I think the news posted is not 100% accurate in one of those two news sources.

 

If I were to only use the information in those two articles, I have little sympathy for the thief, and more for the Tourist(s) (?) who were in their hotel/condominiums, and had an illegal break and entry.  Further, likely the Phuket Curfew was broken (if this took place at night) and I have not read that the thief is being charged for breaking the curfew. 

 

Not being charged for curfew breaking suggests to me that the local authorities may be trying to cut the thief some slack - but one would need to know exact time of crimes to be certain.

The good news is he will be able to reunite with his mother in prison. 

A post of a profane nature has been removed:

 

8.) You will not post disruptive or inflammatory messages, vulgarities, obscenities or profanities.

13 hours ago, Traubert said:

China don't top people for petty theft.

 

Where on earth did you get that idea?

I was in Hong Kong in the 90's when a girl I knew left to travel by train into China. The train had barely crossed the border when she noticed her handbag was missing. She told the guard who stopped the train. Soldiers, presumably also on the train, searched it and found the thief, marched him up to her carriage window, made him kneel and shot him in the back of the head. She went straight back to Hong Kong.