Snatch-and-run Bandits Nabbed In Phuket

[MaiChai]

The pictures can be recovered if a low level format has not been done. I did this a couple of years ago. Google for the software. In fact I think you can even get free software to do it now.

[mikebell]

Well done the boys in brown.

I think the Thai police do a fantastic job.

They are up against low pay, working long hours and face extreme life threatening situations every day. Give them credit when it`s due.

My old granddad used to say, a policeman can be your best friend and that is still relevant today.

Yesterday I was robbed of 700 baht by your granddad's best friend. My offense - besides driving whilst in possession of a white face - was for being 'over limit'. As I was stopped at a motorway toll booth, I don't know what limit he was on about. As he started by asking for 4000 baht, paying him everything I had, seemed a victory. He showed he was thinking of Thailand's tourist reputation by wishing me a Happy New Year AND letting me keep enough for the toll charge.

[Project504naha]

Why is the tourist guy just looking at these two pieces of s__t instead of beating them around the ears as they deserve?

Totally agree...........cockroaches should be sliced for the memory

[Grey11]

Yesterday I was robbed of 700 baht by your granddad's best friend. My offense - besides driving whilst in possession of a white face - was for being 'over limit'. As I was stopped at a motorway toll booth, I don't know what limit he was on about. As he started by asking for 4000 baht, paying him everything I had, seemed a victory. He showed he was thinking of Thailand's tourist reputation by wishing me a Happy New Year AND letting me keep enough for the toll charge.

Though not surprised and glad it didn't happen to me, I hope you aren't offended that I couldn't help but laugh. I'm sure that if I live here long enough it will happen to me also. It is really too bad that things like this happen. I don't go along with those on ThaiVisa who always take the side of the "poor underpaid" government official. Corruption in the government from top to bottom hurts everybody except those millions of "public" officials who are on the take, just plain dishonest, with no honor whatsoever. When the police are the real criminals, we have a real problem.

[chefshane]

7.5yrs for stealing a bag is a lot of time for such a crime!

And a lifetime is a long time to have memories of a violent robbery.

These type of lowlifes should be taught consequences for their thoughtless, greedy, impulsive actions.

Tourism, community image, victim self esteem, development of prejudice, criminal confidence, thousands of people in fear of where they live - these are all affected or developed if petty crime reigns unchecked.

[Keithoven]

7.5yrs for stealing a bag is a lot of time for such a crime!

I agree and have to say that If my bag was stolen but I got it back I certainly would not want to see anyone going to prison. Its happened to me before and it sucks but 7 years does not match the crime..

[Chris Lawrence]

With no disrespect to the robbed couple, how is this story newsworthy?

I am only reading it due to the number of responses, wondering what people had to say.

What's next from the Phuket Gazette, "Dog run over on By-Pass Road"?

Maybe TV is cut off from reporting from some of the other news paper sources? Agree not really riviting news items. No one hurt? Victims appear to be able to weather this problem?

Feel sorry for victim. But again when in Rome do as the Romans do, don't display wealth; you may be the easy target.

[uts]

glad the police made themselves useful sometimes.

and the thing about caning, i thought we live in 21st century and suppose to be a bunch of hypocrites?

and we do, and we expect others to act accordingly... but if u want act like a dog, might as well treat u like one

Can anyone advise how the police made themselves 'useful'?

Usually most information comes from the public as 'information received'.

How was this miraculous 'useful' piece of police work instigated?

[growe237]

<< The given fact that this is a breaking news story says either a lot about the editors here or about the criminality in Thailand. >>

The same thing happened to me in Chiang Mai in broad daylight on a quiet, empty soi while sitting at a coffee shop with my bag sitting next to my coffee cup. The coffee shop owner and I jumped up, chased the thief, yelling, "Kamui! Kamui!" Thais poured out of shops and homes and chased the kid down several blocks away. A small Thai woman nailed the thief using Tae Kwon Do. There were probably fifteen of us involved in the chase plus a motorcyclist and possibly a sawngtao who could have been only marveling at the sight. Soon a half dozen police showed up - more than I have seen all winter.

It is my impression that most thieves who rob tourists are not caught and if so, are not prosecuted successfully because the tourists go home. I went to court last week to testify even though the thief confessed. Kind of a sad story, as I guess many are when resorting to thievery to get what you want.

I love Thailand and will return next winter but I think petty crime of this nature could be markedly reduced if there was a more visible police presence on the street.

[3100034]

Wow make movie stars out of them ,,,,they are showing others how to do it,,,,,,,and they do not have to pay 10,000 Thb for the normal fee here....( to get photo's in press or TV)

Last time i defended myself from the attacker which put me 10 days in Hospital. When i defended myself the second time from the same person because i did not want to spend another 10 days in hospital i get prosicuted 1 year suspended setance and 500 Thb fine.

No reconstruction to the Police. Even when i had two farrang 10 ft. away who saw the who thing they took statements from friends of the assalter only .

These two guys will not go to prison and will get a fine about 100 Thb if they say they are sorry to the judge..and walk away free and laugh !! this is the truth .....Spent 6 years here studying law and order here in Buriram Province. Take heed!!

[thaibkk]

in too many countries, they have a catch and instant release

so the culprits go vitimize over and over again

so 7.5 years, good for them and should be all over the media

no luxerious hotel like conditions in thailand as in many european countries

[dbaron]

Yeah and they'd have kept all the homemade Ferrang porn if there was any. Even so Thais getting nabbed with a camera showing ferrang having sex who they can't claim to know is quite incriminating so probably better to delete it. Unless they're really stupid and say "of course we know them, we pinched their camera!"

Not everyone has a mind like yours.

I go to Thailand twice a year with my wife and every second time with my 2 daughters and have never had sex or filmed ourselves doing this ever.

What makes you think these or other people only go to Thailand for sex.

It happens to be a lovely country that people like to visit for their own reasons.

You sound like a dirt bag

[dbaron]

But again when in Rome do as the Romans do, don't display wealth; you may be the easy target.

No excuse

[featography]

The pictures may be recoverable

Very true. I had a camera shop plug my memory card into a slick piece of hardware I didnt even know existed, and they retrieved all the deleted shots. I hope the couple think to take it to a camera shop and try, or at least tell the story to enough people back home that one person might know and advise them to try recovering them.

[MrOzark]

I've had snatch and run happen to me in both Thailand and China. The Chinese laugh about it because you're a foreigner. There is absolutely no help from the police. And Thailand? When my passport was stolen along with my computer,etc, they barely cared enough to do the paperwork so I could apply for a new visa. It happens in both countries too many times to count. This was photographed because the thief was caught and made a good story. The many thousands of other instances are not accounted for publicly.

[asiawatcher]

Why is the tourist guy just looking at these two pieces of s__t instead of beating them around the ears as they deserve?

Great comment - try another forum... we don't need you here.

[luangtom]

7.5yrs for stealing a bag is a lot of time for such a crime!

If what develops is like alot of other places, the maximum is told to the press and most likely the young men will be made to apologize for their transgressions and be back out on the street in mere days. It has happened before and could easily happen in this case. Afterall,,,T.I.T.

[NamSod]

@Jingjok

You are a good man. I was going to suggest the same, but it's even better since you are there.

Good luck to all!

Edited January 5, 2010 by NamSod

[SuriyaJ]

glad the police made themselves useful sometimes.

and the thing about caning, i thought we live in 21st century and suppose to be a bunch of hypocrites?

and we do, and we expect others to act accordingly... but if u want act like a dog, might as well treat u like one

Can anyone advise how the police made themselves 'useful'?

Usually most information comes from the public as 'information received'.

How was this miraculous 'useful' piece of police work instigated?

By their standard, that was VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY useful of them.

When I read the news I just had to pinch myself to ensure that it was real. I though they were only capable of collecting bribes and bully the poor.

[Navalator]

Caning anyone?

I think that caning is too good for them but should be done in public. Strip them naked and go to town on them in the public square and then throw them into the slammer to be somebody's personal bitch. These scum are part of what makes Phuket such a shit hole. I have just returned from there and will never go back. The taxi thugs are no better than the purse snatchers. No wonder tourism is in a slump. Why would tourists sign up for this kind of treatment.

[OILMAN13]

I have a rented house in Kamala now for 5 years. These people are victim of the world wide depression which will cause untold numbers of incidents like this. Wrong place at the wrong time. I was robbed in Bangkok and the police would barely agree to take a Police report and I was with with my Thai sister-in-law. Who's really behind those BKK gangs anyway? I say forget the cane, hang em high.

[hippyted]

I live in KL most of the time where we have a lot of this.

I absolutely detest these brave warriors who earn living by taking handbags from women.

If the victims read this – do not despair! Most of your photos are almost certainly recoverable using an un-delete program like 'Easy Recovery'

Just remember – do not switch on the camera any more and DO NOT take any new pictures on the same memory card.

If you are still in Phuket tonight (Wed) and can get the camera to Surin Beach I'd be delighted to recover them for you. I have the program.

Good luck and sorry your visit turned out so badly.

Mark (089 919 1596)

very nice of you Marc,, i am sure if they read your post?? they will be over the moon, very kind of you to offer that for them!!!!

the crims will delete pics on camera to sell it ofcourse,, rotten scoundrels that they are

[steffi]

Oh come on surely it's the tourists fault. If they weren't there there simply would be no robbery. They should be put in jail immediately.

[tuftymorgan]

Now this is a topic for "clippings" not just Phuket.

This is becoming boring now. Go to the west and see what crime is. It really hurts.

Enough already. Rak khon Thai. Mai Pen Rai. 200 dollar camera. 200 dollar dinner.

Up to you.

[TheBrit]

A snatch and Grab happened to a good friend of mine while she was in Spain.

They cut the strap with a knife which also cut her arm and infected her with MRSA which ate lots of the bicep muscle away and spent many weeks in hospital.

TB

[Otis]

Are snatch and grabs really an uncommon event in Phuket? Seems to me I see snatch and grab stories quite often.

Journalist might be trying to preserve a little Phuket face? OC

[noungning]

i was just going to say, those photos can be retrieved... but why would she ask why were they deleted... gosh poor lady, so naive.

[Jingjok]

@Jingjok You are a good man. I was going to suggest the same, but it's even better since you are there. Good luck to all!

Very nice of you Marc, I am sure if they read your post?? They will be over the moon, very kind of you to offer that for them!!!! …

Many thanks for that. Strangely I am now getting hate texts telling me I am a f***ing w@*ker for offering!

All very odd. It hardly bothers me, I’m just puzzled by the motivation of the sender (+1 3606 306352).

I was only trying to be nice, especially since my girlfriend is an MCSD programmer and a data recovery guru.

But as others have said, it’s a piece of pudding nowadays: there is indeed a lot of freeware (or very cheap-ware) which should do the job. ‘Deletion’ only changes the headers, it doesn’t actually delete or overwrite anything, it just marks the data blocks as available for reuse.

So long as new data has not been written to the memory card, it will be fine.

I very much doubt these vermin will know that, and so spend ages taking more photos until the card is full, then deleting them too. (That would genuinely remove all traces of the former photos).

I once did a data recovery on a memory card and was astounded to see long-forgotten photos from two years before. In certain circumstances, that could be dangerous!

[alstaxi]

We stayed in Kamala Beach last year and kept away from the beach road (where the photo is taken), exactly because of the many poor looking guys on motorbikes hanging out there.

Hmm besides the fact that this kind of journalism is very uninteresting and can be called scoreboard journalism, these crimes are very uncommon in Thailand. If I had to stay away from any place in the USA, Australia or Europe where there were poor looking guys outside, I could lock myself up in my house.

Thailand is absurd safe. The given fact that this is a breaking news story says either a lot about the editors here or about the criminality in Thailand. Visit any given police station in London. Amsterdam, New York, Miami or Sydney and you will notice that they book and let go small time criminals like that 20 times an hour.

Unfortunately Thai newspapers deploy hundreds of would be journalists with a video and photo camera in police stations in Thailand to put any such rare criminal on picture, defying any and each privacy law.

Thai newspapers would do themselves and the general public a great favour when they would defer some of these people to catch politicians filling their pockets, or to businessmen ruining local villages because of their greed. It would be better for tourism that does not need this negative attention and it would be better for democracy too.

Thes crimes used to be very uncommon in Thailand, not any more. Happens daily in Pattaya, mostly unreported as they are gone in a flash and you dont have time to see a plate number, police couldnt care less. I know from personal experience. Keep your gold covered up, or lose it.

[Hollywood3000]

I roll out of a bar at 4AM in Singapore and as I walk down a dimly lit street I pass by a 75ish year old woman walking alone with her little shopping cart. Why was she walking alone at 4AM? Cause Singapore doesn't put up with crime and they have a thing there called Caning! It works. Every country should have it.

We have but ONE time on this earth, who has the right to step into your life and make it worse? F me? No my friend....F you!