20 Sleeping Tourists Robbed

[Sabum]

ok everyone here it is straight from the horses mouth. i was a passenger on the bus. i had 23000 baht stolen in pssetions from my bag. heres the real story. the bus was designed with a trap door to the luggage room. they didnt drug us but they were professional pick pockets. they could reach up through the floor and steal from carry on bags under our seats. one of us realised that they had been pick pocketed when they went to get there phone from their carry on and found there wallet gone. i and another fellow got up and threatened to smash the driver unconsious if he didnt stop the bus. at that point one or the 4 bus drivers bailed out a side secret door and quickly jumped in a taxi with all the loot. the other 3 ran as fast as they could through oncomming traffic. i chased them with one of the other passengers barefoot we caught one and the other two went and hid in the jungle across the road we split up and searched for them but couldnt find them. the one we did catch we strip searched in the middle of the street but he was clean. so we took he took his pic and i admit stupidly let him go. we called the police who were completely inept. but found someone who could kinda drive the bus. to the police station. where we spent 12 hours giving our statements over and over to the inept probably corrupt police man. when i got too fed up i called my embassy and the tourist police. i got my embassy on the line and told the cop to talk to them in thai. he ran from me downstairs and hid in a room to talk to his superior. so i busted in the door and forced the phone on him. not long after tv crews came and suddenly things started to happen. all of a sudden the managers daughter was on her way with bribe and payoff money. she told us she only had half we told her look we have your bus if u want your vip bus u have to pay us all we didnt ask for any more than what was taken. and that is what we got!!!!!!!!!!!!

all u people who talk smak about us if i ever met u i would straighten u out real fast. we did the best we could it happened real fast. and there was alot of confusion. at that point we only knew one of us had been stolen from. it wasnt until later we realised everyones bag had been rifeled through. admitidly 150000 baht isnt alot of cash from 25 people but only one guy ran with the loot how much can he carry. with a series of events that happened in minutes he took what he could when he realized he was caught in the act and ran as quick as he could. or i would have personally made it so he would never run again.

Dude youre my <deleted> hero. Good for you for aggressively doing something about this. And you too Mi5ez. dam_n it's good to hear the falangs making the Thai police get something done right for once, after 10 hours of trying to sabotage the whole process of course..... but in the end you won, good for you.

[andyc2006]

Im just waiting for all the thai defenders coming over the hill shouting " oh this can happen in the USA UK etc blah blah blah !

In Canada they just take your head and not your luggage......

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...y/National/home

I would prefer to have some of my valuables missing to be honest.....

Either you're being funny or you are seriously trying to infer that this kind of thing is common in Canada and therefore much worse than Thailand? This is one of those seriously rare and freaky occurances you usually only see in movies. And what the press didn't release was that the psycho killer was in fact a Chinese immigrant who was not a citizen of Canada.

Sabum, you've made good points, but I think I have a few more important differences to point out.

In Canada, the criminal was apprehended.

If he hadn't been, the government would have made every attempt possible to apprehend him.

If anybody attempted to hinder the investigation -- local police, local tour staff, staff on the bus, tour company owner, bus owner, etc... -- or didn't cooperate with the investigation, they'd be charged and prosecuted for obstructing justice. Even if the criminal(s) were poor and/or native and the victim(s) were rich and/or foreign.

And most importantly, after the guy had his head cut off in Canada, BlackA didn't hop onto canadianvisa.com and say the victim had it coming to him since he didn't use amphetamines to ensure he never slept in a public place, carry an AK-47, and lock his head to the seat so it couldn't be taken.

[Rico3000]

ok everyone here it is straight from the horses mouth. i was a passenger on the bus. i had 23000 baht stolen in pssetions from my bag. heres the real story. the bus was designed with a trap door to the luggage room. they didnt drug us but they were professional pick pockets. they could reach up through the floor and steal from carry on bags under our seats. one of us realised that they had been pick pocketed when they went to get there phone from their carry on and found there wallet gone. i and another fellow got up and threatened to smash the driver unconsious if he didnt stop the bus. at that point one or the 4 bus drivers bailed out a side secret door and quickly jumped in a taxi with all the loot. the other 3 ran as fast as they could through oncomming traffic. i chased them with one of the other passengers barefoot we caught one and the other two went and hid in the jungle across the road we split up and searched for them but couldnt find them. the one we did catch we strip searched in the middle of the street but he was clean. so we took he took his pic and i admit stupidly let him go. we called the police who were completely inept. but found someone who could kinda drive the bus. to the police station. where we spent 12 hours giving our statements over and over to the inept probably corrupt police man. when i got too fed up i called my embassy and the tourist police. i got my embassy on the line and told the cop to talk to them in thai. he ran from me downstairs and hid in a room to talk to his superior. so i busted in the door and forced the phone on him. not long after tv crews came and suddenly things started to happen. all of a sudden the managers daughter was on her way with bribe and payoff money. she told us she only had half we told her look we have your bus if u want your vip bus u have to pay us all we didnt ask for any more than what was taken. and that is what we got!!!!!!!!!!!!

all u people who talk smak about us if i ever met u i would straighten u out real fast. we did the best we could it happened real fast. and there was alot of confusion. at that point we only knew one of us had been stolen from. it wasnt until later we realised everyones bag had been rifeled through. admitidly 150000 baht isnt alot of cash from 25 people but only one guy ran with the loot how much can he carry. with a series of events that happened in minutes he took what he could when he realized he was caught in the act and ran as quick as he could. or i would have personally made it so he would never run again.

Dude youre my <deleted> hero. Good for you for aggressively doing something about this. And you too Mi5ez. dam_n it's good to hear the falangs making the Thai police get something done right for once, after 10 hours of trying to sabotage the whole process of course..... but in the end you won, good for you.

Thank you mi5t3r and others for your accounts.

There seems to be major discrepancies between your accounts and that published in the Bkk Post. If this is an example of Bkk Post reporting then I think the newspaper isn't worth reading on any topic.

Here's how it works at government run bus stations. Thieves, usually a pair of males, target what looks like a worthwhile victim in the bus station. They note where he has booked a ticket to and they buy ones to the same destination.

In the course of the trip they offer drinks to the target. If the offer is refused they sit at the target's table at the meal stop, engage him/her in friendly conversation and it isn't too hard to find an opportunity to drug his food and/or drink.

The rest you can work out for yourself. When this particular method was used on me they only took my credit cards and left the money etc. As I was on my way to a refugee camp where I was working I was not in need of credit cards - needless to say there's not any use for them in such camps. In addition I was in a state of groggy awareness for four days after arriving and didn't discover until then that my credit cards were gone.

I later learned that they were in use in Hong Kong withing 24 hours of being stolen and all purchases were in jewellery shops. They had gone on a spree. (It has been reported that these shops co-operate with the thieves, but I cannot verify this.)

I returned to Bkk and spent an entire day with the Tourist Police having my report written in dribs and drabs over many hours - much like the description given above. During the course of that day the policeman writing my report told the how the credit card thieves operated. He seemed amused.

The report was in Thai which I can't read and I signed a statement which I didn't understand. I had a copy and had it translated. It made no mention of being drugged or of the incident happening on a bus. Of course, any inteligent person has given up expecting integrity from the Thai police. There is a nice video on YouTube entitled "Men in Brown" showing a policeman counting his bribes.

[edgarfriendly]

Thanks Mi5ter and Mi5er.

sorry for your experience...

TORS said u got what u desreved, Hes in the business, he should know...

has anyone seen a 60bt bus ticket from bkk - chaing mai??

is it just another puff of smoke? blame game(like kids) point the finger, cry.....

dont intimidate me.......im only a sneaky thief.....ohhh, dont confront me, your only a guest here...as soon as ur backs turned, drugs in ur drink, razor blades up the seam of ur bags........oh, please dont scare me, scary farang, its what u deserve......

well, we can see the effects of greed and unaccountability can we not. I CAN.

SOM NAM NAR, all u greedy fkrs who'll starve cos a real jobs too much like hard work.

SO SORRY to all the kind=hearted and sincere ppl who try and try to build relationships between each other.

ef

PS - Tors, ive met SO Many operators just like u, fake smile, hate tourists who understand ur sneaky rude manners. now im abusive to everyone, i get the service i want and all the staff hate me. GOOD.

no thanks for free anything. and i educate everone i ever meet.

U Wont Catch Me Unaware.

PPS- i very recently got drugged on the catamaran from chumpon to ko tao(early this month) by eatng a ham sandwich, i know it was drugged cos b4 id finished eating it my eyes were goin, i was sweating like mad and i felt myself goin under(sleep)

some guy came and tried to get me to give him money, (for seating) after id bought my tkts at the train station(did i deserve that, Tors?)

i refused to give him money at which point he tried to pull out my wallet, so i grabbed his shirt and dint let go until we arrived in ko tao.

they said the boat was broken and wed have to get off, so i staggered off the boat and curled up on the pier for 7 solid hours. this was at 7am....

DONT EAT THAT SHIT. WATCH THEM, COS THEY WATCHING YOU.

or not, i love you all regardless

***flame removed***

ef

E2A - rico knows whats up

Edited November 28, 2008 by sbk
No flaming!-- sbk

[dingdongrb]

Is it just me or is there writing style similarities between mi5t3r and mi5ez posts?

[mi5t3r]

Is it just me or is there writing style similarities between mi5t3r and mi5ez posts?

lol that maybe because she is my girlfrind. but she wanted to bost her individal accounts as well.

[dingdongrb]

Is it just me or is there writing style similarities between mi5t3r and mi5ez posts?

lol that maybe because she is my girlfrind. but she wanted to bost her individal accounts as well.

I do have to say then that you appear to have found your perfect match... Good luck..

[torrenova]

Before I first came to Thailand (about 15 years ago) I knew about this type of thing. There was no internet so to speak, very few people had mobile phones and all you had was your wits and perhaps some guide book. I knew also not to put valuables in the checked in luggage of a plane but to carry them in my hand luggage. I also knew to spread things around so that one theft would not mean everything was lost (money, cards etc.).

So I see the point that people not adhering to simple safety rules despite having thousands of times the information I had back then should shoulder some blame.

However, nothing makes this right.

We know that the BiB are either in cahoots or are bribed off. Does anyone here or with half a brain not know that ? Surely everyone with an internet connection knows that ?

What is the answer ? well I pondered about the fact that Thais do no seem to put much value on their time and thus, lengthy prison sentences probably do nothing to deter them. Then again, you cannot execute people for a simple theft, or perhaps you can ?

No, I see the only thing which is ever going to stop tis is a change in the ability to pay your way out of a problem if you have one. As the BiB is not going to change anytime soon, then I don't see the threat of law being a viable deterrent.

Seizure of assets would only redistribute wealth to the already corrupt though if it really went to those robbed etc. then it could perhaps work.

So if there is no means which people find acceptable to act as a deterrent, then do you have to look at punishments which are not acceptable, such as the chopping off of hands for thieves ? Not really an option I say but I do see the punishment befitting the crime.

I hate to say that nothing can be done but being serious, just what can be done ? From the BiB through the organised gangs it would always be the little people who are prosecuted or punished. Until some way is found to catch and lock up or execute the ring masters and that includes the BiB, then I do not see a solution. When murderers are out on bail and operating casinos in Cambodia and their family members are still elected to public office it would seem obvious that the Thais themselves have little inclination to change the very warped status quo.

Perhaps a total out and out civil war akin to the French Revolution is the only thing which could change things. Not that I for one want that, just at the moment !

[Flatouthruthefog]

Is it just me or is there writing style similarities between mi5t3r and mi5ez posts?

lol that maybe because she is my girlfrind. but she wanted to bost her individal accounts as well.

I do have to say then that you appear to have found your perfect match... Good luck..

Be that as it may, Mi5t3R, as an expat in Thailand for some 15 years now I have to congratulate you. From what you say you did your absolute best, wisely, within what we foreigners CAN do in such a situation.

In many other nations it would have been most satisfying to have beaten the sh1t out of all criminals concerned, and/or hidden the bus (difficult, I admit) and held it against total repayment by the (apparent) charlatans who ran it.

I think many readers (maybe potential passengers?) will have learned much from your clear report of a very bad and sad situation. I am delighted that this trauma has not put you off Thailand for ever.

The unofficial, UNINSURED, cheap bus service between Bkk and CM needs to be thoroughly investigated and hopefully ended for ever. It is a long-standing source of illegal income aimed purely at first-time, low-budget tourists.

Some good hearted Thai friends can start on this right away. I'll keep you Posted. And, oh yes, the Bangkok Post would get their info only from the police. A few years ago it was a good newspaper, as was The Nation.

RIP, professionalism.

[harleyclarkey]

REPLY by TORS;

Tourists get the tour operators they deserve

I don't understand you...or at least I hope I don't.

Are you saying the passengers/tourists got the tour operator they deserved and then deserved to be robbed? What on earth are you saying??

And, how can you popssibly offer any kind of excuse for what happened? For sure the bus staff were 100% behind the robbery if they did not actusally rifle the bags. How did the robbers manage to get onto a moving bus? Why did the tour operatort offer to repay the value of the goods stolen

A despicable crime by low life thugs .

Edited November 29, 2008 by harleyclarkey

[FarangFatal]

If you don't know that third class trains and busses are a problem for Farang... ooops for you. If I were on that bus, I would have gone to a market or Super Center and bought some small hand tools like cutting blades, hammers etc. and the orgaionzed a guard of 50% of the Farang men to be posted to ensure my safety. Have a map etc. Put the biggest dude right behind the driver and sequester all male Thais in the rear of the bus. We would have arrived safely if I had to drive the bus! BE dumb and get hosed off!

Somebody not happy Mai Pen Rai!

[barcelonatio]

How is it that the Bus's owner Sirada Boonme, 26 refuses to provide the names of the 4 thieves in her employ..Shouldn't she be arrested for hindering a police investigation?

This would only work in a civilized country that had respect for the law. Thailand is now a free-for-all sort of tropical Wild West. If there is no government, army, or any leadership whatsoever to solve PAD destroying the country, I can imagine the police priority to recooperate a few Ipods.

[imafaranggetmeoutofhere]

so sick these things happen here in thailand welcome to thailand