Recent Burglaries In Chaweng

[parallaxtech]

I live in a nice upscale community in Chaweng where the houses average 15-20MB. We have a two-man security force and a secuity gate. For three years we have not had any type of burglary to think of, but this past three months, six homes were burglarized, including mine. I lost only a laptop with the backup drive, but was still traumatized over it. We called the police (tourist and regular), but they never came. The next day we went to the police station and filled out a report. The police said that they typically leave one man as a lookout while the other ransacks the house. When we came home that night we did notice one suspicious character on a motorcycle outside of the entrance gate all dressed in black. I know it is difficult for the police to catch the multitude of criminals living on the island, but I'm wondering if they ever make any attempt to surveil them. It won't take long for the criminals to get more brazen, knowing that the police never bother to catch them.

I realize that times are getting tougher and crime is on the increase. My question is should we just take more security precautions realizing that the police are never going to curtail the problem? Of course I have recently made my house into an armed fortress, but would it do any good to contact my embassy or write to the police commissioner or is that just a wasted effort?

Thanks,

Mike

[MSingh]

I live in a nice upscale community in Chaweng where the houses average 15-20MB. We have a two-man security force and a secuity gate. For three years we have not had any type of burglary to think of, but this past three months, six homes were burglarized, including mine. I lost only a laptop with the backup drive, but was still traumatized over it. We called the police (tourist and regular), but they never came. The next day we went to the police station and filled out a report. The police said that they typically leave one man as a lookout while the other ransacks the house. When we came home that night we did notice one suspicious character on a motorcycle outside of the entrance gate all dressed in black. I know it is difficult for the police to catch the multitude of criminals living on the island, but I'm wondering if they ever make any attempt to surveil them. It won't take long for the criminals to get more brazen, knowing that the police never bother to catch them.

I realize that times are getting tougher and crime is on the increase. My question is should we just take more security precautions realizing that the police are never going to curtail the problem? Of course I have recently made my house into an armed fortress, but would it do any good to contact my embassy or write to the police commissioner or is that just a wasted effort?

Thanks,

Mike

1 ) Yes, but what would be your idea for taking those measures & how would they be funded ??

2 ) No, won't do any good in my opinion.

Recently, a small Project of 5 Villa's just off Monkey Theatre Road in Bophut got Burgled, all of them in one night ( yep, all 5 ) & not a Soul in them woke up, strange huh ??

It's our view that they put something into the A/C Systems..

[Samuian]

a.) The BiB's work in different way, but usually they have an Idea who's who...they do know how and where to gather information!

b.) expect this more often to happen as the economic situation falters more..

c.) play it safe, place valuables in a safe and have a good security system!

d.) have the "security guards" changed on a regular base!!!!

e.) inform the "security company" about suspicious people hanging around and the guards not responding...!

f.) put clearly visible signs up (in Thai of course): "This property is under CCTV 24/7 Surveillance with Internet connection, silent alarm!"

....I have heard about the "magic smoke", "something in the a/c system".... I think it's an "urban myth"..

it's a simplistic explanation why nobody heard a thing or woke up... those thieves, burglars are simply very, very good in NOT making any noise!

[smokie36]

Dogs are probably the best deterrent.

[BigC]

sorry to hear u got burglered i got it myslef about 2 months ago my lap top was taken. beleive it or not sometimes these things do turn up so if u buy something make sure u keep receipt and serial number and take photo of your valuables. also try to gete house inssurence.

as for deterents. yes all this cctv and dogs help. but the best thing is to have inssurence back up. it will not bring your family photo albums back but will get something.

[parallaxtech]

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions -- made me feel a bit better! Yes, I now have physical (not guns) and electronic security as well as two guard dogs. What I think would be useful, but will probably never happen, is more roadblocks at night, especially stopping any vehicle with Thais (sorry for the profiling) coming out of farang residential areas.

What bothers me is I left my home in the Caribbean because they were shooting and robbing westerners in their homes. I was feeling very safe here up until the last six months. I've heard through the grapevine that many rich farangs are leaving here due to the increase in crime. One guy told me that Phuket was not safer, but the police were actually much better at catching the criminals. My concern is that if the word spreads through the criminal community that it's open season with impunity on farangs, it will become much more dangerous for us all and I will once again be looking for a safer place to live.

[yantzen]

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions -- made me feel a bit better! Yes, I now have physical (not guns) and electronic security as well as two guard dogs. What I think would be useful, but will probably never happen, is more roadblocks at night, especially stopping any vehicle with Thais (sorry for the profiling) coming out of farang residential areas.

What bothers me is I left my home in the Caribbean because they were shooting and robbing westerners in their homes. I was feeling very safe here up until the last six months. I've heard through the grapevine that many rich farangs are leaving here due to the increase in crime. One guy told me that Phuket was not safer, but the police were actually much better at catching the criminals. My concern is that if the word spreads through the criminal community that it's open season with impunity on farangs, it will become much more dangerous for us all and I will once again be looking for a safer place to live.

Last month a burglary at our house and last week the house of the neighbours! They took the safe of the neighbours, a lot of work for them to open it with result..........nothing in.

[BasementCat]

I totally agree with Samuian that "those thieves, burglars are simply very, very good in NOT making any noise". Our house not far from Tesco Chaweng was burglarized 2 times this week: first time we were awake downstairs and heard nothing, second time we were asleep in a locked house. The police was quick to come after we appeared in their station, but no effect so far.

Speaking of precautions: I guess external security camera in front of the house would be helpful.

Question: after your cell phone was stolen, did you check money transfers/phone calls a thief made from your mobile?

[carmine]

Being burgled is now part and parcel of living on this island. Sad but true. Does anyone have a nice story of atleast one burglar actually being caught?

[MSingh]

Being burgled is now part and parcel of living on this island. Sad but true. Does anyone have a nice story of atleast one burglar actually being caught?

Yep i do, when i lived in Hua Thanon..

I got my Laptop back too which i stupidly never backed up my Pics of the day my Daughter was born, but got the Laptop back with Pics still on it thankfully...

The Police brought the robbers ( 2 of them ) to my House for me to give them a slap too, happy days..

[TheWalkingMan]

I live in a nice upscale community in Chaweng where the houses average 15-20MB. We have a two-man security force and a secuity gate...

Sorry for the losses there. But with houses averaging 15-20MB, why-o-why are you using a two-man security force?

TheWalkingMan

[bluechipit]

Can I ask? How did they get in? Did they force windows? Force doors? Break anything to get in? Or climb in through an open window?

My house has bars on all windows and one front door - this is the only way in our out. I have 3 dead-locks on this door. It is solid. If someone tried to break in, it wouldn't be quiet. They'd have to make some noise.

We have a dog as well (and another one on it's way) We also have floodlights outside. The house is raised on stilts and blinds on all windows, so no-one can look in and see what's inside.

Are these thieves just opportunists? or more professional?

My friend recently had his laptop stolen. He was away 3 days, when I asked how they got in - he replied the windows were open, they slid back the mosquito nets and climbed in... Doh!

Matt.

[NHJ]

the classic modus operandi is to remove remove the screws wich are holding the bars, silly but true, the screws are easily removable with a phillips screwdriver as they don't have a soldering point on each screws's head...

[NHJ]

the classic modus operandi is to remove remove the screws wich are holding the bars, silly but true, the screws are easily removable with a phillips screwdriver as they don't have a soldering point on each screws's head...

[parallaxtech]

Can I ask? How did they get in? Did they force windows? Force doors? Break anything to get in? Or climb in through an open window?

I have the typical aluminum frames/windows. They easily used a screwdriver to pop it open. I did it myself one time when I lost my keys!

Someone asked "Why only a two-man security force." They are employed by the property management company. It might be better to have a thirty-man security force, but my monthly management fee would be about 30,000/mos, and let's face it, security people here are pretty useless. My community covers about sixty rai, so it would be difficult and expensive to surveil the entire area.

I have come to the conclusion that it was your fault if you were burgled in a house you own (rental security is up to the management) as you didn't take the necessary security precautions. My house is not impenetrable, but it would now be extremely difficult to get through the physical security (barbed wire, walls, electrified fence, armored windows) and electronic security (motion lights/sensors, alarmed windows and doors), not to mention two large dogs. I now feel if anyone can get through that, they deserve whatever they can take.

All farangs need to realize that they are a big target and it is not if but when you will be attacked!

Edited October 11, 2009 by parallaxtech

[bluechipit]

OK. I understand, but removing the bars on the windows with a screwdriver would still take some time... Surely these guys wouldn't want to hang around!?

I'm going to get my drill out now and drill out the X on the phillips head making them impossible to take out.... Awesome idea. No-one will remove those in a hurry!

What sort of items are they removing? I'm guessing smaller items like ipods, phones, laptops, cameras?

Has anyone heard of any 50" Plasma Screens/Big Refridgerators going missing? Something that big?!

I know back in the UK of gangs hiring trucks to come and empty entire houses of tv's, fridges, etc. Does that happen here?

I've also heard of them using fishing rods to grab car keys through the letter box of the front door and stealing cars (clever!)

I think these are some good options:

1.) Alarm system with sounder/siren inside the house, making it unbearable to be in the house.

2.) Flood-lights with sensors around the house. (in the UK i had one inside my garage pointing at the door you enter through. I remembered to look down away from the light as I walked in. If someone broke in they would of got 500w of halogen light in their eyes and be blinded for 5 minutes or so (quite hard to steal when you can't see!)

3.) Two Safe's. One cheap safe full of bricks that isn't bolted down. One good safe hidden well and bolted to the floor/wall. That way they run off with the cheap safe full of bricks. - I'd recommend installing the safe yourself. I had Chubb install a safe for me once. Never again. They used tiny screws to hold it to the wall/floor. I replaced them with proper concrete bolts.

4.) An old style crap laptop left around - so they steal this instead of your top of the range one (which is kept in the safe)

5.) A dog. Always a good deterrent.

6.) And from my IT Side - a backup of all your important data on a hard disk OFF-SITE with someone you trust. Just in case your PC goes missing, you don't want to loose all those important pictures do you!?....

I remember a story about a guy in the UK or the USA (can't remember now) who's TV kept getting stolen. The insurance company would keep replacing it, until one day he got so pissed off he filled it will explosives... Unfortunately people were hurt. Not a good idea!

Obviously if someone is really determined they will get it. I've heard of villa owners waking up with a gun held to their head and being demanded to open the safe... (maybe an urban myth)

These are just ideas,

Matt.

[TheWalkingMan]

Wow, sixty rai and 2 guards. A burglary waiting to happen.

Are people in your housing complex sociable? I mean do they watch out for their neighbors, keep an eye out for suspicious characters, etc. Maybe everyone could get together and have alarms installed by a quality dealer and hopefully be given a discount too. I know if I coughed up 15-20M baht, I would make sure that I knew all my immediate neighbors and that I had a very noisy alarm system.

Good luck and I hope that you do not have any more problems.

TheWalkingMan

[H2oDunc]

Crime on the island seems to be on the increase these days. The AC units are a sealed unit so nothing can be added to the outside unit that would induce sleep via the indoor unit. It is simply a heat exchanger. I'm surprised that with a 15-20 million baht house each house does not have its own alarm system ? and if it didn't come with one surely you would fit your own ?

[parallaxtech]

The problem with many farang communities is there are absentee owners. Sure, I know Pierre who lives in Monte Carlo and Paris, Hans from Germany who visits one month per year, and Costos from Greece who lives here four months a year. Most of these houses have caretakers who live in the basement apt, but the houses don't have alarms. My partuclar house sits on one rai of land and I have planted over one hundred trees and over five thousand plants to make it into a jungle paradise. Unfortunately, the burglars can creep through the jungle under cover of darkness and go through a back window. Now, they will have to pass through a maze of security. I would like to even find an attack monkey, but my wife doesn't like monkeys.

A few owners are now installing security measures. The point is that three years ago there were no burglaries in my neighborhood, and this year most of the houses have been burgled. I have a strong feeling that in 2012 we will be saying, "Why are we having all this crime? It was so safe back in 2009!" The trend is going one way so just be prepared.

[NHJ]

i'll speak for some friends who have been visited by robbers, they took a chair on the balcony and installed it at the back of the house and removed properly the bars for the other one, the thai style windows often don't close properly or not at all so it's easy to break in the house.

the robbers certainly don't act in a urge, i think they check wich house hase the potential to be robbed and come back when they see it can be done without risking too much.

for a friend they took his laptop(the window guy) and for the other while the laptop and PS3 was there, they stole only the safe.

[ESB7]

Burglaries have been rampant in Samui for over 3 years, I know of houses that have been done 3 times in a few months. If your property is supposedly worth 20mil baht, apart from the security guards that you pay maitenance every month for, what security measures did the builder incorporate for that kind of price, I would hope that they at least had deadlocked doors and high secure windows with an alarm.....???

[itishothere]

On an island like Samui, where those that have money are blaringly obvious to those that don't, it is perhaps a sad inevitabilty that crime will happen. I know through experience how traumatic a burglary can be.

Does anyone know of any statistics for such crimes? Do they exist? Are they reliable? Have burglaries increased over recent years? I suspect the answer to the first three questions is 'no', and the last one 'probably yes'.

[parallaxtech]

If your property is supposedly worth 20mil baht, apart from the security guards that you pay maitenance every month for, what security measures did the builder incorporate for that kind of price[/color],

In this community you buy the land and build your own house. The property management only controls the road access, common areas, security, water, and electric. In the beginning they built some starter houses (5-7MB) that were all cookie cutter. Then others began buying up the land and wanted their own design so we challenged the management company with a lawyer. Now, you can build whatever you want within Thai law. The house across the street from me is 5br/6b, theater, pool, jacuzzi, and will be close to 30MB. They are installing 200,000B in security equipment.

As I said previously, don't expect the police or anyone else to help in a burglary. If you don't have security on your house it's only a matter of time. One tip I do have is to never leave your laptop in the open. I have a hidden compartment in my house, so they will have to defeat all my security measures and then find the computer.

Soi'll speak for some friends who have been visited by robbers, they took a chair on the balcony and installed it at the back of the house and removed properly the bars for the other one, the thai style windows often don't close properly or not at all so it's easy to break in the house.

the robbers certainly don't act in a urge, i think they check wich house hase the potential to be robbed and come back when they see it can be done without risking too much

I agree. The bars on my windows are reinforced into the concrete and the heads are welded, so good-luck in removing them. There are five houses around me now that are unoccupied and unsecured, so I'm sure the burglars will hit them first. Security measures can always be defeated, so just have enough so that they will think twice and move on to a less secure house.

One thing that might sound ridiculous, but you should be aware of it: The security company workers know your vulnerabilities, so they might be your next burglars. While they were working on my house I left for an hour. When I came back, they had already loaded my gardening tools into their truck, and asked if they could have my friend's motorcycle (covered by a tarp while he is in Greece). It's ironic that the people who are supposedly providing your security are robbing you at the same time! I complained to the supervisor and they returned the tools, but they were mad about it so went around breaking small things like pvc, lights, etc.

Edited October 12, 2009 by parallaxtech

[BasementCat]

The security company workers know your vulnerabilities, so they might be your next burglars. While they were working on my house I left for an hour. When I came back, they had already loaded my gardening tools into their truck, and asked if they could have my friend's motorcycle (covered by a tarp while he is in Greece). It's ironic that the people who are supposedly providing your security are robbing you at the same time! I complained to the supervisor and they returned the tools, but they were mad about it so went around breaking small things like pvc, lights, etc.

Wow, that's scary! So they asked you to assist in stealing your friend's motorcycle, right? What a gang of bastards! They seem to feel pretty comfortable about removing stuff from the houses they are working on. It's obvious that security company workers could do it, but still their aggressive and shameless approach seems creepy to me.

[SamuiDude]

I have come to the conclusion that it was your fault if you were burgled in a house you own (rental security is up to the management) as you didn't take the necessary security precautions. My house is not impenetrable, but it would now be extremely difficult to get through the physical security (barbed wire, walls, electrified fence, armored windows) and electronic security (motion lights/sensors, alarmed windows and doors), not to mention two large dogs. I now feel if anyone can get through that, they deserve whatever they can take.

Lol! Well said. Truth is that a burglar or burglary tip can come from your "trusted Asian friends" but don't forget that in KP thief's were from East Europe... Also different kind of maintenance usually bring "outside" eye pair to your home of which you don't know who is casing out what you've got worth carrying out.

The better living tastes here the more people wanna get a little piece of it and this unfortunately seems to be the truth just about anywhere in the world. Even in Europe.

Dog is definitely the best security measure as Thais are really afraid of them. Get your FREE guard from dog rescue and get two flies with one slap.

Edited October 12, 2009 by SamuiDude

[mustafa]

One thing that might sound ridiculous, but you should be aware of it: The security company workers know your vulnerabilities, so they might be your next burglars. While they were working on my house I left for an hour. When I came back, they had already loaded my gardening tools into their truck, and asked if they could have my friend's motorcycle (covered by a tarp while he is in Greece). It's ironic that the people who are supposedly providing your security are robbing you at the same time! I complained to the supervisor and they returned the tools, but they were mad about it so went around breaking small things like pvc, lights, etc.

What is the name of this security company??

[parallaxtech]

What is the name of this security company??

Thaivisa.com Rules will not allow me to name the company. Any company you choose, just make sure you keep an eye on the workers. As an update, they also destroyed my water heater in retaliation for reporting them. Keep in mind that relatively speaking, you are rich and they are poor, so expect some resentment. I get high anxiety any time I have to get Thais to repair something at my house. In every case they have fixed one thing, but broken or stolen something else. I've seen this same behavior in many other countries where there was a divergence of wealth, so it is not just a "Thai thing."

[mistresserika]

Dogs are great for security until they are poisoned, which often happens in Samui. Ever tried geese, far better than dogs anyday.

[chiang mai]

It's been exactly the same scenario in Phuket so nothing new. The Phuket burglar though seems less sophisticated and based on our experience of having had intruders break in twice, they are extremely quiet, willing to take huge risks but are purely opportunists who only take small valubles they can easily carry/run with. Leave a window open even slightly and it'll be your loss.