500 Baht For An Electric Plug Said The Drunken Bib

[robblok]

Just a question.. who has ever seen plugs being sold at 711's ? i have never seen them there only at the carefour. Maybe the locals knew that too and so they were right.

I could be wrong because that i havent seen them does not mean they are never sold there. But it is unlikely.

[Lammbock]

@Xircal

You have a nice fantasy.

No no, i really drove over that plug. I never denied that. Everybody could hear the loud noise.

I try to explain where it was.

When you drive a bit downhill from the parking lot after you need to turn right to the main road and right there, between parking lot exit and main road, there was the cable stretch across from somewhere to the noodle store.

But it was not the first time i was there. Many times i visited the Beer Bar and parked my car there and the noodle and rice shops where always there. But somehow they got the idea to wire the cable this time in another way.

They know there is the parking lot!!! So i don't get it!!!

[Lammbock]

Just a question.. who has ever seen plugs being sold at 711's ? i have never seen them there only at the carefour. Maybe the locals knew that too and so they were right.

I could be wrong because that i havent seen them does not mean they are never sold there. But it is unlikely.

Believe me, some 7/11 sell plugs. I bought 2 from them already. Still working fine.

Cost 200 or 300 each.

[Vertigotogo]

Very difficult situation and very easy for other people to comment with hindsight and without knowing EXACTLY what went on (assumption city again).

What would have happened if you had acted differently? Severe beating? shot? You are alive and able to tell the tale. Probably very little to learn from this either, situations always differ so it's difficult to apply any specific intent for future, similar, events.

These kind of situations happen all around the world where 'foreigners' are involved. I reckon you did OK under the circumstances and would just add my 2-penneth worth that I know it can be upsetting, but don't let it prey on your mind.

[robblok]

Just a question.. who has ever seen plugs being sold at 711's ? i have never seen them there only at the carefour. Maybe the locals knew that too and so they were right.

I could be wrong because that i havent seen them does not mean they are never sold there. But it is unlikely.

Believe me, some 7/11 sell plugs. I bought 2 from them already. Still working fine.

Cost 200 or 300 each.

Ok i believe you.. just said i never seen them there.. so if you say you seen them there i believe you.

[mattcodes]

So you went to the first 7/11 and returned empty handed, essentially with no solution to the problem, at this point they were not entertaining further diversion or the offer of cost price of the plug?

So if the 7/11 where in close proximity why didnt you continue to the next 7/11 originally. It seems to me had you been able to replace the plug there and then the situation would of been resolved, you couldnt. Was it really worth your time though? 500 baht let them sort it out, if unreplaceable to next morning Id say you got the better deal..

She continued to sell noodles, albeit less visably, this is frustrating you? is it feasible that this lack of lightning over the next few hours, actually cost her 10 bowl of noodle soup at 30 baht each? I think so..

As for the police officer, you dont know if on duty or not, you can pick fault here and there, speculate (maybe probable cause), but this can work both ways, you argue you weren't drunk, but if you get pedantic should you have been drinking anything at all?

Placement of plug? TIT, things dont always stack up neatly. If the area was well lit (before you smashed the plug) and you driving slowly should you have noticed it? Presumably other cars had no problem? Again flipping the argument here maybe. This is probably the only point that I see in your favour.

Its 500 baht, I think the solution was fair, I cant work out from your first post to your last where your really beef is, at first it was the ripped off, then it was drunken police officer, let it go..

Edited October 3, 2010 by mattcodes

[Lammbock]

Anyhow, i don't think you can learn a lesson out of this.

Its a classic "all against the Farang thing"

I am happy i made it un-beaten out there.

I got into 2 fights with Thais before. You can't win. :jap:

[Lammbock]

So you went to the first 7/11 and returned empty handed, essentially with no solution to the problem, at this point they were not entertaining further diversion or the offer of cost price of the plug?

So if the 7/11 where in close proximity why didnt you continue to the next 7/11 originally. It seems to me had you been able to replace the plug there and then the situation would of been resolved, you couldnt. Was it really worth your time though? 500 baht let them sort it out, if unreplaceable to next morning Id say you got the better deal..

She continued to sell noodles, albeit less visably, this is frustrating you? is it feasible that this lack of lightning over the next few hours, actually cost her 10 bowl of noodle soup at 30 baht each? I think so..

As for the police officer, you dont know if on duty or not, you can pick fault here and there, speculate (maybe probable cause), but this can work both ways, you argue you weren't drunk, but if you get pedantic should you have been drinking anything at all?

Placement of plug? TIT, things dont always stack up neatly. If the area was well lit (before you smashed the plug) and you driving slowly should you have noticed it? Presumably other cars had no problem? Again flipping the argument here maybe. This is probably the only point that I see in your favour.

Its 500 baht, I think the solution was fair, I cant work out from your first post to your last where your really beef is, at first it was the ripped off, then it was drunken police officer, let it go..

1. The next 7/11 was/is near enough for a short drive but not for a long walk.

2. The Officer was on duty. How i know that. Well, his Radio was turned on and you can hear other voices out of that think.

So i guess he was on stand-by or something like that. He also acted/showed me that he is on duty right now.

He showed me his batch and said i am Police.

3. It was a rip off AND a drunken police officer.

[Thaddeus]

I got into 2 fights with Thais before. You can't win. :jap:

Everyone needs a hobby, personally I'd pick a different one.

[tigerfish]

just on a side note to the topic being discussed.

i wonder how much of that 500 baht that lammbock handed over will actually be used to pay for the electric she is using. and if as i suspect shes is wiring up to the mains like a lot of thai street vendors do to get her lighting. is that not an illegal act in its self and why isn't the bib taking her to task over this.

oh sorry i forgot TIT.

Edited October 3, 2010 by tigerfish

[Briggsy]

Were you ripped off? Yes.

Are you aware you were ripped off? Yes.

Are drunken cops commonplace all over Thailand every night of the week? Yes.

Are they to be avoided? Yes.

Do you know all this? Yes.

So why were you ripped off? Because you had no Thai friend with status higher than the drunk cop to phone who would come to your assistance when he intimidated you.

This is the reality of the situation. Thais would automatically reach for their mobile in this situation.

[onnut]

@Xircal

You have a nice fantasy.

No no, i really drove over that plug. I never denied that. Everybody could hear the loud noise.

I try to explain where it was.

When you drive a bit downhill from the parking lot after you need to turn right to the main road and right there, between parking lot exit and main road, there was the cable stretch across from somewhere to the noodle store.

But it was not the first time i was there. Many times i visited the Beer Bar and parked my car there and the noodle and rice shops where always there. But somehow they got the idea to wire the cable this time in another way.

They know there is the parking lot!!! So i don't get it!!!

Yes, I understand what you are saying, and thats why in my post or reply to your OP was why the hel_l would the dimwit put a plug in the road where cars have to drive. anywhere else you would of been told its not your fault because they left the plug there.

Oh well, thats what we have to put up with sometimes I supose.

& Poorsucker, why did you give me a red on my post before?

[PoorSucker]

& Poorsucker, why did you give me a red on my post before?

all of them there were scumbags if you ask me! the normal Thai mob rules.

Not all Thais are the same.

[elkangorito]

I quite often see people using electricity without a care in the world, here in Thailand.

It's not uncommon to see extension leads & power boards draped & used in the most dangerous of places...and this practice goes on everywhere in Thailand. Not only this but usually the extension leads are 'single insulated' (like speaker cable) & cannot tolerate much abuse.

Who was in the right or wrong?

I'd say it'd be pretty difficult for the OP to drive over a power board, unless he was driving on a footpath (excluding driveways). Even if the power board was on a footpath, this is inherently dangerous for obvious reasons.

It seems that the power board was in the wrong place, as with the OP.

What should the OP have done?

Taking into consideration the drunkenness of the extorters & the number of them, paying 500 Baht would be better than being beaten up or killed.

EDIT:

In my experience, white foreigners in Thailand have a price on their heads...dead or alive, unless you know somebody (like I do).

EDIT 2:

I bolded 'than' to highlight that 'then' is not used in this grammitacal situation, since so many people seem to use 'then' incorrectly.

Edited October 3, 2010 by elkangorito

[onnut]

& Poorsucker, why did you give me a red on my post before?

all of them there were scumbags if you ask me! the normal Thai mob rules.

Not all Thais are the same.

ah, fair enough, now I get it. you are right. I am sorry as I did not mean all Thais are like that. I meant the ones the OP explained about shouting at him while together and drunk standing behind a copper

I am married to a Thai who I love and respect very much including her family so I do not think all Thais are like this and my son is Thai/English. sorry for the missunderstanding :jap: please forgive me. check my other posts then you would know I do not think bad of all Thais, just a few of em, but thats the same I think of the English as well

[PoorSucker]

I am married to a Thai who I love and respect very much including her family so I do not think all Thais are like this and my son is Thai/English. sorry for the missunderstanding :jap: please forgive me. check my other posts then you would know I do not think bad of all Thais, just a few of em, but thats the same I think of the English as well

OK, A greenie for you.

[onnut]

I am married to a Thai who I love and respect very much including her family so I do not think all Thais are like this and my son is Thai/English. sorry for the missunderstanding :jap: please forgive me. check my other posts then you would know I do not think bad of all Thais, just a few of em, but thats the same I think of the English as well

OK, A greenie for you.

cheers ears.

[saraburioz]

@Xircal

You have a nice fantasy.

No no, i really drove over that plug. I never denied that. Everybody could hear the loud noise.

I try to explain where it was.

When you drive a bit downhill from the parking lot after you need to turn right to the main road and right there, between parking lot exit and main road, there was the cable stretch across from somewhere to the noodle store.

But it was not the first time i was there. Many times i visited the Beer Bar and parked my car there and the noodle and rice shops where always there. But somehow they got the idea to wire the cable this time in another way.

They know there is the parking lot!!! So i don't get it!!!

You should be looking where you're going.

If you hang around beer bars, I bet you mean whore houses, you should not expect to see the good Thai people.

[llso]

After having lived in Thailand for 7 + years. It seems to me that considering the circumstances you described, 500 Bt was a very fair settlement. Regardless of wheter the plug should or shouldn't have been there ,etc. I think the Thai's showed incredible restraint and if it had been me I would have been apologetic paid the 500 Baht,and considered myself lucky. 500 Bt in todays Thailand is really not that much money as compared to 10 years ago. This is my opinion and from actual experience,

LL

[longball53098]

The lesson here is to always carry a power board in you're car boot or motorcycle storage box. You never know when you may need to supply power to a noodle shop.

[h90]

500 Baht is more than fair!

I would have told them to give me some scott tape and would have repaired it. It does not look too bad.....At least twisting the wires together would be possible and I have seen worse.

[Lammbock]

Now we really can see how many different opinion we all have.

But that is good. Would be bad if we all the same.

[neverdie]

Baht 500 sounds reasonable enough to me, considering loss of business until the gal can get a new power strip, and that a half decent one costs baht 250 or more anyway.

Mac

Half decent one, the one he ran over was a 69 baht tesco job, what makes you think that they will replace it with a half decent one .

I'm wondering where the power plug was before all this started, perhaps laying on the driveway, waiting to be run over?

[neverdie]

@saraburioz

Please turn off your computer.

[neverdie]

The lesson here is to always carry a power board in you're car boot or motorcycle storage box. You never know when you may need to supply power to a noodle shop.

Love it. Better still, get a trailer, fill it with all sorts of supplies and tow it around behind your car, everywhere you go. That way if next time you wreck a chair, table, golf ball, paving stone or whatever, you will simply just be able to replace it.

I don't get any of this thread really. If I ran over a powerboard like this, you most likely wouldnt even notice it under the tyre of the car (not with the misses moaning about stuff and the radio blaring out nonesense thai tunes and all that) & I would of been halfway down the soi before even 'they' could of worked out what was going on.

Seems a bit odd that the cop was standing there & so quickly to act.

Anyway, Amazing Thailand.

[khon kaen boy]

I can't believe the negative answers from some of you on here, what is it with you ? do you stand up for Thais in all things ? believe me you are not Thai and never will be, accepted ? yes but never Thai.

Obviously these things happen here and no any Thai would not have put up with this crap.

Take off the rose tinted specs and see it clearly

I was involved in an accident were the lady on motorbike, very drunk & driving up the wrong side of the road (also no tax & insurance) swerved & hit me head on....I was not drinking..who was to blame..me. A crowd had gathered and then two copper tops show up and wanted to arrest me, I am fortunate to have an aquaintance in the police who showed up after a call and soon dispersed the two cops and the crowd.

Who was left to pay for the damage to the car..me through my insurance.

[CarlBkk]

It is a sad fact of this country that foreigners will often get blamed even if it wasn't their fault. Why? We're guests, less chance of connections, got plenty of spending money (as often seen), quick to pay out, easy target. We bring it on ourselves sometimes by adhering to all of that and not making it difficult, like Thais would. However, a Thai in a Benz? Nahhh they're never stopped or fined or blamed. Police and crowd are scared their "buying power" may be too high. And all the average Thais in their Hondas know this too and hate it.

What would a Thai guy have done in the OP's situation? Heard the crack, realised he's cracked something on the road, and drove on...knowing that this would be the way to avoid an hour or haggling with lo-so argumentative people, including police in the area.

Edited October 4, 2010 by CarlBkk

[random]

last week on sukhumvit (under thonglor BTS) i stopped to go into a shop there, I pulled up a small entrance and into a car park that I believe belongs to a condo, also in there was a massage shop and some other small shops. At the entrance was some street food stall and a small coffee stall, and the obligatory motorcycle taxis.

I parked my car in a marked parking bay and went to the shop, two minutes later i was back at my car. The woman at the coffee shop shouted '20 baht' at me, I asked what for and she said for parking, I asked her if she owns the parking lot or does it belong to the condo (luckily she spoke english as my thai is awful), she just kept repeating 20 baht and would not tell me if she owned the car park or was just trying to get a free 20 baht haha.

Anyway I said no and got in my car to drive out, she started to hit my car a few times and then kicked it, so i stopped and got out of my car to see if she had damaged it, luckily she hadn't, I walked towards her to talk with her and she ran away and into a shop so I waited to see if she would come back out, the motorcycle taxis were all ok about this, they laughed and said she was crazy etc.

Anyway I am waffling and don't really know the point of my post

Edited October 4, 2010 by random

[robblok]

It is a sad fact of this country that foreigners will often get blamed even if it wasn't their fault. Why? We're guests, less chance of connections, got plenty of spending money (as often seen), quick to pay out, easy target. We bring it on ourselves sometimes by adhering to all of that and not making it difficult, like Thais would. However, a Thai in a Benz? Nahhh they're never stopped or fined or blamed. Police and crowd are scared their "buying power" may be too high. And all the average Thais in their Hondas know this too and hate it.

What would a Thai guy have done in the OP's situation? Heard the crack, realised he's cracked something on the road, and drove on...knowing that this would be the way to avoid an hour or haggling with lo-so argumentative people, including police in the area.

Some smart farang should contact a high ranking bib and ask how much his protection would cost and resell it on a monthly base to others.. bib happy.. farangs connected..

[CarlBkk]

It is a sad fact of this country that foreigners will often get blamed even if it wasn't their fault. Why? We're guests, less chance of connections, got plenty of spending money (as often seen), quick to pay out, easy target. We bring it on ourselves sometimes by adhering to all of that and not making it difficult, like Thais would. However, a Thai in a Benz? Nahhh they're never stopped or fined or blamed. Police and crowd are scared their "buying power" may be too high. And all the average Thais in their Hondas know this too and hate it.

What would a Thai guy have done in the OP's situation? Heard the crack, realised he's cracked something on the road, and drove on...knowing that this would be the way to avoid an hour or haggling with lo-so argumentative people, including police in the area.

Some smart farang should contact a high ranking bib and ask how much his protection would cost and resell it on a monthly base to others.. bib happy.. farangs connected..

Good idea. Anyone in with a police general's daughter? Where can I find one?