Irishman's Room Robbed: Pratamnak Soi 4..he Left...

[libya 115]

SOURCE: Pattaya People: September 7th 2007

Thieves Burgle Irish Man’s Room

The Pattaya Police were informed on 7th September that a tourist’s room had been burgled and the victim needed assistance.

The police arrived at the Free Drop Apartments, located in Pratamnak Soi 4 to find the victim, 68 year old Mr. Jimmy Day from Ireland waiting.

From the police investigation it was found that the thieves climbed through the window to gain access to the room and carried away the safe inside the closet which contained 800 Euros, 25,000 Baht and other valuables totaling almost 100,000 Baht.

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[Tootah]

..........please ask the irish man (all gifts/bottles of whisky greatly appreciated)

[goldfish]

I am constantly amazed at how many safes are not bolted down. I am aware this is from a hotel, but an un-bolted safe is simply an easy to find box where the valuables are kept

[libya 115]

******NEWS******UPDATE******

SOURCE: Pattaya City News: September 7th 2007

Irishman Robbed of 385,000 Baht.

A robbery has taken place at the residence of Irish man Jimmy Day aged 68 at his 4th floor apartment located on Soi 4 Prathumnak Road in the early hours of Friday morning.

On returning home at about 4.00am with friends after a night out, he discovered that his balcony door had been forced open, and on further examination he discovered that 8000 Euros / 25,000 Baht plus his passport and other personal effects had been contained in a personal security safe in the bedroom, which had been wrenched from its fittings and completely removed with the contents inside.

He called Pattaya Police who arrived promptly examined the scene and made a thorough examination of the area also taking fingerprints.

At this stage Police believe that the perpetrator may be a construction worker as there is much construction development taking place next to the fourth floor of the building and observation of the apartment would be easy by some one who may have been on the equipment outside.

Police Investigations are continuing

Libya 115 says:

Cash should be kept in the bank. A Passport should be hidden, Travellers cheques should be King. Valuables should be on the person.

[britmaveric]

Another muppet loses his gear in Patters. I wonder how many people this will happen to, before one learns.

[simon43]

Is he a muppet to put his valuables in a safe?

Simon

[britmaveric]

Is he a muppet to put his valuables in a safe?

Simon

Yes as you can see the safe worked quite well for him!!!!

[Globeliner]

Another muppet loses his gear in Patters. I wonder how many people this will happen to, before one learns.

Keep it real brit

[britmaveric]

Leaving 800 euros and 25k bht in your room??? sorry must be mental - safe or no safe, I leave my dosh in the bank.

[cali4995]

Honestly, most of the security at these hotels/apartments is really

pathetic. It's certainly not wise to keep such large amounts of cash

in the room but rather than pointing fingers at the victim how is the

thief able to enter a 4th floor apartment anyway? The safe , wrenched

from it's fittings but nobody heard anything? How do you exit a 4th floor

balcony with a safe and nobody notices? I just think management/

landlords at these places need to exercise a minimum amount of

responsibility to the security of their guests. These thefts happen all

too often here because security is so lax it's almost nonexistent.

[liketobe]

So....I get a serviced apartment and stay awile, how do I secure my camera equipment when not there? What kind of accomidations do I arange so I can leave my junk laying around?

[cali4995]

Liketobe, that's a perfect example. You can't keep all your stuff

in the safe box every time you go outside. At the very least, you

should have one of those padlockable latches on the door. They

might look flimsy, but actually hard to pry them off. Most of these

places have so many copies of keys floating around, staff, previous

tenants, you don't know who has access to your room. Very few of

these hotels have CCTV cameras, an excellent deterrent.With that much

loot at home, are they really that expensive? Something like a nice

digital camera, for some of these people it's just a big bullseye that says

"steal me". The temptation is to great to make a quick 10k at the

pawn shop. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to conceal it in a bag.

You have to be careful which "friends" you allow in your home, some of

these people do a quick inventory of everything of value and then go

blab to their friends, oh, the farang has this, this and that in his room.

But, at the end of the day, I think it's mostly common sense. If there was

construction going on nearby this Irishman's residence. And it became

apparent that access to the balcony wasn't that difficult. AND he knew

he was keeping that much booty at home the alarm bells should have

been going-off. I just really don't like to see people get done over while

they are on a holiday and it happens here way,way too often.

[liketobe]

Thanks for the input cali4995

May be this sort of thing is going on all the time in small ways but the ones quoted from the news in this forum are always about the safe with good size chunck of change inside. I gess I'll have to keep my expensive lenses inside socks in the clothing bag so not easly seen. Just when you get your kit organized the way you want and a bag that looks like cheep junk you understand that any one who sees you using it can help you lose it. I'll just take a photo of every one that gives it a good look and tell the police man that it's one of these 5,000 suspects

[pointofview]

Is he a muppet to put his valuables in a safe?

Simon

Yeah, i always leave my safe open so as to avoid the serious damge that would be done in trying to open it. I just hide my valuables behind my shovel

[cali4995]

Thanks for the input cali4995

May be this sort of thing is going on all the time in small ways but the ones quoted from the news in this forum are always about the safe with good size chunck of change inside. I gess I'll have to keep my expensive lenses inside socks in the clothing bag so not easly seen. Just when you get your kit organized the way you want and a bag that looks like cheep junk you understand that any one who sees you using it can help you lose it. I'll just take a photo of every one that gives it a good look and tell the police man that it's one of these 5,000 suspects

Liketobe, I've also been shopping for some nice camera gear,

and the 1st thing I started worrying about was how I was going

to secure it. You know most Thai people have broken glass

cemented on the tops of walls around their house and spear-tipped

gratings around their balcony areas. If you steal from a Thai person

well, they're out for blood but most farangs just shrug their shoulders,

gee, I made a mistake. Other than furnish you with a report, the police

are not likely to do anything except make an appearance. I like your

idea about taking snapshots of people who have authorized access to

your residence. Copies of I.D. cards are also good. It's sad you have

to be so paranoid but as a visiting farang you are a primary target. As

you say, I think this sort of thing happens a lot more than we see in the

paper where you usually only get the sensational stories.