girlfriend had her hanbag stolen in the bus station yesterday afternoon. has anyone seen a person with a huge smile on their face wearing a beautiful gold necklace and taking photos of everything with a fistfull of Baht

Seems like this is becoming a problem. My admin day had her bag stolen (on soi 23) and my local Thai restaurant has a warning to keep hold of your handbag.

Savages!

Back in June last year after only being in Thailand on this occasion for less than one week, my wife & I moved into a new apartment on Ramkhamhaeng 22, we thought it was quite a safe soi, our apartment was about 1km into the soi, we were walking to Big C at about 6.30/7pm ish, it had just got dark. I normally have my wife walk on my left, to protect her from being hit by cars or motorbikes, but this evening I just didn't think it was required seeing as it was early and not so busy, I couldn't of made a worse mistake. A motorbike tearing up behind us and I thought nothing of it until I saw my wife being draged along about 50 meters or so buy an alone man on a motorbike, the was a corner and my wife had let go of her bag after holding onto it for as long as she could( I didn't know until after wards she had 2 baht of gold, my passport & 15000 baht in it) after she let go he it a stray dog and fell off his motor bike, I was running after my wife shouting for her to let go, my sandles/flip flops had fallen off my feet of and I pounced on this Thai man like there was no tomorrow, beathing the sh** out of him, whilst I was doing that I shouted to my wife you ok, and she said yes.There were heaps of people around but they didn't want to get involved, my wife call the police and they arrived, and they handcuffed him and looked inside his motorbike, he was a motorbike taxi from soi 16 Ramkhamhaeng, they took him away and my wife & I went to the hospital, my wifes skin dragged on the road and her legs did not look good, and the skin from my toes was hanging off due to my running after him, later we went to the police station and it was so unreal after we both made a statement, we were taken in to the custody suite and meet the thief & his sister, and about 6 police officers, he had admitted what he had done, and said he need the money because his mum was in hospital with cancer and was going to die soon, also his girlfriend was 8 months

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pregnant. I had absoutley no sympathy for him at all, he was going to jail & directly to jail, no chance of being bailed out the police said, and they were true to their word, he pleaded guilty, so no court apperance for us and he got sentenced to 4 years 6 months, I do think the sentence was a tad harsh a year in jail would of been enough.

Oldgent count your self luck that she wasn't hurt! It could of ended alot worse!

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pregnant. I had absoutley no sympathy for him at all, he was going to jail & directly to jail, no chance of being bailed out the police said, and they were true to their word, he pleaded guilty, so no court apperance for us and he got sentenced to 4 years 6 months, I do think the sentence was a tad harsh a year in jail would of been enough.

Oldgent count your self luck that she wasn't hurt! It could of ended alot worse!

wow thanks for that Colin at least u had the satisfaction of catching this thief. and my regards to u and your partener. and yes you are right it could have been worse. i am very thankfull for that

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pregnant. I had absolutely no sympathy for him at all, he was going to jail & directly to jail, no chance of being bailed out the police said, and they were true to their word, he pleaded guilty, so no court apperance for us and he got sentenced to 4 years 6 months, I do think the sentence was a tad harsh a year in jail would of been enough.

Oldgent count your self luck that she wasn't hurt! It could of ended alot worse!

My wife and I had a very similar experience to yourself about 6 years ago. My wife had some grazes and bruises from being dragged behind the bike after they tried grabbing her bag (I was wearing shoes so no major damage to me other than a few scratches). The 2 thieves (driver and pillion rider) each went to the slammer for 12 months.

Sorry to hear these stories, and seem to be more of them.

Carrying handbags has never ben recommended in Bangkok in the 20+ years Ive been here.