The small hotel where my friend stays was robbed yesterday afternoon. Small place, 5 rooms, three were occupied at the time but none of the guest were there at the moment.

This is how it happend:

Farang guy walks in and asks for a room but he wants to look at it first. Receptionist gives him the keys to the two empty rooms. He goes upstairs alone, brakes in all three occupied rooms and opens the safes, probably with a crowbar, ripping out the number locks. He only takes the cash. My friend lost 900 Euros, but his passport, flight ticket, credit card and even his laptop which was on the table are still there. Same in the other 2 rooms. The guy just took cash, nothing else.

Best part: the owner's wife had switched off the surveillance camera system to save on her electricity bill ! So when the BiB showed up and the receptionist couldn't describe the farang burglar, they didn't even file a report on the incident.

Nothing to be done about it. My friend wrote the cash off and is kinda happy that he still has all his other stuff. Could have been worse.

So hotel owners beware. The scumbag is still on the loose. He'll try it again but I'm sure the BiB will get him fast once he tries that stunt in a place where they not only have a surveillance system but actually have it working

The only taken rooms just happened to be unoccupied?

The surveillance system had been turned off?

Lucky opportunist thief or an inside job?

Doesn't it look a bit suspicious when going to check out a hotel room while holding a crowbar?

in my experience checking in hotels, never i was alone to inspect a hotel room before checking in. the story just sound odd.

Explorer

Seems awfully bold for a farang to pull a job like that.

crowbar?

farang?

blindly gives the keys with no chaperon?

uhh.... no, this is not how it happened. inside job, close the thread.

I agree with all the responses. I have never been in any hotel or guesthouse anywhere in the world where a potential guest is allowed to check the rooms out alone. How long did it take him to break into three rooms, break into three safes, rifle through them removing cash and wander out again. What about the noise? If not the doors the safes would have taken a bit of brute force and ignorance even if they were cheap ones.

100% inside job, and a very clumsy, inept attempt at a cover up.

This is not to say it wasn't a farang but only that he didn't work alone.

I have never been in any hotel or guesthouse anywhere in the world where a potential guest is allowed to check the rooms out alone.

I can confirm that a few places let you check the upstairs rooms on your own, as it happened to me several times, probably because of the "kikkiat-ness" of the staff, other local experiences includes checking in without providing any sort of ID and then in the morning find a full row of occupied rooms with the doors wide open, nobody inside and the lady wich supposed to make them up nowhere to be seen....great!

Occam's razor... inside job!

Guys, guys... I just related what happened. My friend had stayed at this place several years for his usual 3 week vacation. Doesn't look like an inside job at all to him or me. I don't know where you are staying, but when I sometimes ask to see a room before checking they simply hand me a key or two and let me go upstairs by myself. Not only in Thailand the receptionists are kikiat - or simply understaffed at the moment. For these little safes you don't need much of a crowbar, do you? Yes, the farang must be rather daring, desperate and bl@@dy stupid too. He was very lucky this time. I have no doubt that he won't get away with it more than a couple of times. Eventually, he'll end his days in BKK Hilton, I'm sure.

I actually agree with the skeptics, inside job and not falang but thai, things are tight in patters right now money is tight which promotes crime, there is no way a falang would break into a room not knowing if the occupants where in there, 3 rooms all with people out hmmmmmmm no brainer for me

I actually agree with the skeptics, inside job and not falang but thai, things are tight in patters right now money is tight which promotes crime, there is no way a falang would break into a room not knowing if the occupants where in there, 3 rooms all with people out hmmmmmmm no brainer for me

and it just so happened that the CCTV was switched off at the time.

Very convenient that.....

the farang was not witnessed by any of the victims

he was unaccompanied as he went on his robbing spree

he knew all the guests were out

he had the tools on him to open safes

the CCTV was switched off

the receptionist couldn't give a description

the police decided it was not worth filing a report

Rather too convenient.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, then in Thailand it always is a duck even when those locals who stand to gain swear blind it's a zebra.

The small hotel where my friend stays was robbed yesterday afternoon. Small place, 5 rooms, three were occupied at the time but none of the guest were there at the moment.

This is how it happend:

Farang guy walks in and asks for a room but he wants to look at it first. Receptionist gives him the keys to the two empty rooms. He goes upstairs alone, brakes in all three occupied rooms and opens the safes, probably with a crowbar, ripping out the number locks. He only takes the cash. My friend lost 900 Euros, but his passport, flight ticket, credit card and even his laptop which was on the table are still there. Same in the other 2 rooms. The guy just took cash, nothing else.

Best part: the owner's wife had switched off the surveillance camera system to save on her electricity bill ! So when the BiB showed up and the receptionist couldn't describe the farang burglar, they didn't even file a report on the incident.

Nothing to be done about it. My friend wrote the cash off and is kinda happy that he still has all his other stuff. Could have been worse.

So hotel owners beware. The scumbag is still on the loose. He'll try it again but I'm sure the BiB will get him fast once he tries that stunt in a place where they not only have a surveillance system but actually have it working

The only thing missing apart from the money is the name of the establishment.

It sounds dodgy, and probably, is but the staff at hotels do sometimes just give you the key to check the room. It happen to me in Patong several years ago.

CCTV just happened to be turned off, to save on the electric bill? Inside job.

FYI, we had something stolen from our bike at The Avenue. Once in the security room where they watch the CCTV footage AND record it, to their surprise, and it was the first time it ever happened, the footage stopped recording right after we got there, and picked up again not long before we got to the security office. According to them, the footage was damaged, and only during the time someone could have stolen something. Nice scam they have going on there.

Never ever leave anything valuable in a hotel room. Especially money.

Barry

Farang my ass,inside job all the way done by a Thai man who knows the owners wife,offcourse the truth will never come to light because the lasy Bib wont even investigate.

Ditto that. Every time I've scoped out a place I've been accompanied, once even proposed too

Crowbar-ing safes? I don't think so. You'd need a bloody big wrecking bar at the least and the space to wield it, plus it'd make a racket to wake the dead, CCTV etc.

I call inside job too.

Well OP what's the script are you gonna name and shame or what?

As long as it's not a tv sponsor you should be ok to go for it.

Yes, I want to join the 'I smell a rat' team as well.

Definately something a bit strange about this one.

Very convenient that..... the farang was not witnessed by any of the victims he was unaccompanied as he went on his robbing spree he knew all the guests were out he had the tools on him to open safes the CCTV was switched off the receptionist couldn't give a description the police decided it was not worth filing a report Rather too convenient. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, then in Thailand it always is a duck even when those locals who stand to gain swear blind it's a zebra.

Yeah. It's a frikkin' laughing mallard......

Farang my ass,inside job all the way done by a Thai man who knows the owners wife,offcourse the truth will never come to light because the lasy Bib wont even investigate.

No, because it was prolly the lazy BiB's brother-in-law........