Bangkok taxi driver arrested for stealing million-baht wristwatch

[webfact]

 

A 44 year old Bangkok taxi driver was apprehended on Monday morning, accused of delaying his journey for several hours in wait for a Japanese passenger, who was inebriated, to fall asleep. The motive behind this delay was allegedly to pilfer a wristwatch worth a million baht.

Pol Col Pansa Amarapitak, the chief at Bangkok’s Thong Lor station, reported the arrest of the driver, known only as Boonlert, on charges of nocturnal theft.

 

On the evening of December 17, a tipsy Japanese businessman took Boonlert’s taxi for a one-kilometre journey to his accommodation located on Soi Thong Lor 13 Road. Upon waking up at approximately 5am on December 18, the passenger found his watch was missing and informed the police.

CCTV footage revealed that the driver had aimlessly wandered the streets in his taxi for around two and a half hours before finally delivering the passenger to his destination.

 

by Mitch Connor

Photo courtesy of iStock

 

Full story: The Thaiger 2023-12-26

 

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[Pique Dard]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The motive behind this delay was allegedly to pilfer a wristwatch worth a million baht.

...the exception that proves the rule! more often than not, the honesty of thai taxis is praised, indeed!

[neeray]

Events like this are definitely not good for Thailand's 'pristine' image. That said, such could happen in just about any country around the world.

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

CCTV footage revealed that the driver had aimlessly wandered the streets in his taxi for around two and a half hours before finally delivering the passenger to his destination.

Trusted Thailand...

Tomorrows news, taxi driver returns tourists 3 million cash left on the back seat.

[peter zwart]

Keep it going guys. Will do tourism good.

[jacko45k]

No no no, it cannot be so, Surely the absent minded Japanese tourist left it behind, and the honest taxi driver returned it!

[steven100]

there's been a mistake '   

he's suppose to return the watch not steal it ....

[ezzra]

I found it strange that the taxi driver could tell that he's nicking a million baht watch from a copy one,

but yet, didn't take the passenger's wallet...

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by ezzra

[ricklev]

I note  that it was the Thonglor station that cracked the case. Nuff said... 

[spidermike007]

I do not think it is smart to wear a watch that valuable when wandering around a big city. Anywhere. It takes a bit of a desperate ego to do so. 

[ezzra]

5 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

I do not think it is smart to wear a watch that valuable when wandering around a big city. Anywhere. It takes a bit of a desperate ego to do so. 

Myself, and i presume many others too, can't tell the different between a well made $100 copy watch to a real one,

can you? and if someone has such a watch, where exactly do you want them to wear it, at home?...

[JBChiangRai]

4 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

I do not think it is smart to wear a watch that valuable when wandering around a big city. Anywhere. It takes a bit of a desperate ego to do so. 

 

I'm not sure I agree, I think there are 2 kinds of expensive wristwatch wearers, those who keep it for best and wear it on special occasions and those who put it on every day and forget it.  I got my first Rolex (Datejust Oyster, Champagne Dial, Bimetal Jubilee Strap) when I was 30 and whilst it felt special then, it became ordinary, the only time it ever came off my wrist was to be serviced, it felt special (in a bad way) when I had to pay the bill for service every few years.  It was usually filthy in the clasp by servicing time, I never cleaned it.  Someone once said to me that if you get mugged in Thailand they won't take your watch because they don't know what they are worth and if they do they will think it's fake.  I sold it this year because the service was 50,000 baht with new parts and they said they couldn't polish the bracelet next time as it was worn too much and wanted over 100,000 baht to replace it, I declined.

 

Some watches can be a great investment, I wanted particular watch a couple of years ago and had to buy a cheaper model first to join the queue.  The watch I ultimately got is worth 3 times what I paid for it, and again, I wear it 24/7, showering, swimming etc.  It's a vastly overpriced watch considering it's just steel but a great investment.

 

There's no ego involved in wearing a good watch, it's simply put it on and forget.

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

And then the taxi driver discovered that it was a cheap copy bought that night in a bar. ;) 

(I like to write for maybe 500B, that was what I paid 30 years ago. I don't know how the prices developed.)

[Bangkok Barry]

Makes a change to ladyboys stealing gold chains from Indians, doesn't it.

[Morch]

Setting a timer for an honest-taxi-driver story making an appearance.

[PETERTHEEATER]

1 hour ago, JBChiangRai said:

 

I'm not sure I agree, I think there are 2 kinds of expensive wristwatch wearers, those who keep it for best and wear it on special occasions and those who put it on every day and forget it.  I got my first Rolex (Datejust Oyster, Champagne Dial, Bimetal Jubilee Strap) when I was 30 and whilst it felt special then, it became ordinary, the only time it ever came off my wrist was to be serviced, it felt special (in a bad way) when I had to pay the bill for service every few years.  It was usually filthy in the clasp by servicing time, I never cleaned it.  Someone once said to me that if you get mugged in Thailand they won't take your watch because they don't know what they are worth and if they do they will think it's fake.  I sold it this year because the service was 50,000 baht with new parts and they said they couldn't polish the bracelet next time as it was worn too much and wanted over 100,000 baht to replace it, I declined.

 

Some watches can be a great investment, I wanted particular watch a couple of years ago and had to buy a cheaper model first to join the queue.  The watch I ultimately got is worth 3 times what I paid for it, and again, I wear it 24/7, showering, swimming etc.  It's a vastly overpriced watch considering it's just steel but a great investment.

 

There's no ego involved in wearing a good watch, it's simply put it on and forget.

 

 

I will check with an ex DPM and get back to you on that.

[newbee2022]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

 

A 44 year old Bangkok taxi driver was apprehended on Monday morning, accused of delaying his journey for several hours in wait for a Japanese passenger, who was inebriated, to fall asleep. The motive behind this delay was allegedly to pilfer a wristwatch worth a million baht.

Pol Col Pansa Amarapitak, the chief at Bangkok’s Thong Lor station, reported the arrest of the driver, known only as Boonlert, on charges of nocturnal theft.

 

On the evening of December 17, a tipsy Japanese businessman took Boonlert’s taxi for a one-kilometre journey to his accommodation located on Soi Thong Lor 13 Road. Upon waking up at approximately 5am on December 18, the passenger found his watch was missing and informed the police.

CCTV footage revealed that the driver had aimlessly wandered the streets in his taxi for around two and a half hours before finally delivering the passenger to his destination.

 

by Mitch Connor

Photo courtesy of iStock

 

Full story: The Thaiger 2023-12-26

 

- Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here.

 

Get our Daily Newsletter - Click HERE to subscribe

....failure of navigation system probably 🤩

[actonion]

3 hours ago, neeray said:

Events like this are definitely not good for Thailand's 'pristine' image. That said, such could happen in just about any country around the world.

pristine image, are  you having  a laugh?

[actonion]

2 hours ago, steven100 said:

there's been a mistake '   

he's suppose to return the watch not steal it ....

That's a Tourist authority of Thailand line 

[brianthainess]

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

I found it strange that the taxi driver could tell that he's nicking a million baht watch from a copy one,

but yet, didn't take the passenger's wallet...

 

You could read the full story

[brianthainess]

1 hour ago, Morch said:

Setting a timer for an honest-taxi-driver story making an appearance.

The meter is ticking 

[brianthainess]

2 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

And then the taxi driver discovered that it was a cheap copy bought that night in a bar. ;) 

(I like to write for maybe 500B, that was what I paid 30 years ago. I don't know how the prices developed.)

He sold it for 330k, guess how I know.

[brianthainess]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

CCTV footage revealed that the driver had aimlessly wandered the streets in his taxi for around two and a half hours before finally delivering the passenger to his destination.

Was the meter running? sorry rhetorical question. 

[ThaiFelix]

"No I was just borrowing it from a dead friend".  "What do you mean hes not dead?"

[alex8912]

3 hours ago, ezzra said:

I found it strange that the taxi driver could tell that he's nicking a million baht watch from a copy one,

but yet, didn't take the passenger's wallet...

 

My first thought too. But then I got a feeling he may have sold " fake " watches at sometime. The watch guys in Patpong or Suk can see a real one 5/6 meters away at night. The Taxi driver could say the watch wasn't on him when he got in the car. Hard to say the wallet wasn't on him.  I guess he ( the victim ) would have had to pay the taxi fare by using a wallet. 

[OneMoreFarang]

2 hours ago, Morch said:

Setting a timer for an honest-taxi-driver story making an appearance.

There are some of those stories from time to time.

[WDSmart]

With our phones, who wears a wristwatch anymore, anyway? 

[StayinThailand2much]

Lots of horror stories about Thai taxi drivers recently (incl. the foreign woman on Phuket kicked out of a taxi)... They must be working overtime now on a BIG story of that "jai-dee" taxi driver returning a briefcase with dozens of Rolexes, jewellery, and a wallet stuffed with tens of thousands of dollars, yuan...

Edited December 26, 2023 by StayinThailand2much

[G Rex]

13 hours ago, webfact said:

on charges of nocturnal theft.

if he 'gets off' - will that be a nocturnal emission?

[Regyai]

Taxi scum driver should have declared - Simply the playful actions of naughty Elfs on a shelf