Money Stolen From Safe Boxes At Pattaya Third Road Guest House

[Rimmer]

Money stolen from Safe Boxes at Pattaya Third Road Guest House

PATTAYA: -- A Guest House located on Pattaya Third Road was broken into and three safe boxes were opened on Saturday Morning, despite the presence of security equipment installed at the location. Police were called to the Internet Shop and Guest House on Saturday Morning after a shop assistant noticed the entrance to the 2nd floor guest house had been held open by a broom handle.

Full story and pictures HERE

-- Pattaya One 2011-04-23

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[Soutpeel]

Inside job obviously...knew exactly which boxes to hit...

[FarangBuddha]

Wow talk about "security"...quality door hardware and locks that can be opened by a broom handle

[OZEMADE]

Wow talk about "security"...quality door hardware and locks that can be opened by a broom handle

Anyone who uses these Safe Deposit Boxes has a screw loose. If you forgot the password you put in, like most guys that come back drunk.

They contact the reception desk that opens the safe for them and they dont have the new password?

That is because they have a password that opens every safe in the building.

[FarangFB]

I was the guy who had most of the money stolen.

Although this was a serious failure in security or an inside job, I'm not getting anything back according to the owner. Bringing this to the court would most likely be a lost cause and I'd need to spend even more money on lawyer and court fees.

All I can do is learn from the experience

[dananderson]

FB-I noticed this was a bank of SD boxes. Did you put this large amount of bills in the box, unrwrapped for all to see? That amount is just to tempting for an employee making 200b per day. Sorry for your loss.

[NALAK]

all the security boxes can be accessed by any staff, who could you take to court, you would have to stay until any court case came to court, if they dont turn up it goes on and on. just have to put it down to experience.

[FarangFB]

FB-I noticed this was a bank of SD boxes. Did you put this large amount of bills in the box, unrwrapped for all to see? That amount is just to tempting for an employee making 200b per day. Sorry for your loss.

Actually no one knew what was inside. It was a pouch with an envelope and the money.

Almost certainly an inside job. The thief had all the keys and was very quick, they didn't know how much I had in there.

[bartender100]

There has been many discussions about how easy these boxes are to break into. I now never use them in hotels.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hotel+safe+cracking&aq=4&oq=hotel+safe

[Spaniel]

There has been many discussions about how easy these boxes are to break into. I now never use them in hotels.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hotel+safe+cracking&aq=4&oq=hotel+safe

Great link! Thanks for posting.

[cali4995]

sorry to hear about your misadventures F-F-B. unfortunately security at so many of these places is dependent

upon how careful management choses to be. and often no common sense whatsoever is employed. strangers allowed

to wander around and "scope-out" the arrangements. questionable tenants allowed to check-in without providing

any I.D.(who then burgle adjoining rooms) and Yes, even "insiders"using their knowledge to pilfer from guests.

[Basil B]

FFB Sorry to hear of your loss, but could you enlighten us to what the room rate is?

Reason for asking I suspect it was either dirt cheap or over priced, either way, it is highly unlucky that the hotel owner could:

• Afford or get insurance.
• Afford to employ staff with good references.
• Afford to get decent safes and security system.
• Afford to make good your loss out of his own pocket.

The safe in question are cheap crap that comes out of China, the badging changes but the design is the same, they have been around for over twenty years now and were being sold by Macro here in the UK for less than £10 ($15/500B) some 15 years ago, the mechanism relies upon a stop bar that is held in place by gravity therefore any jolt of the safe will cause the bar to jump.

Better are safes that are motorized but even then there are ways and means to bypass security on them particular ones from the hospitality industry (hotels), the ones I worked on had a further four tears of codes and conventional metal key if all else fails.

I suppose the best advice is never never have more than you can afford to loose or get good insurance, even having the hotel store your valuables in their safe is no guarantee,

[SantiSuk]

Several guests in a guest house on soi Bukaow had money nicked from the in-room safes a few years ago. The English proprietor did not take it seriously - "no it can't happen - you must be mistaken". Luckily his Thai wife/owner did take it seriously and called in the BIB. Detectives came within 2 hours and fingerprinted me and asked me to go down soi 9 for a statement. They also fingerprinted all staff and interviewed each one separately. When I came back the next visit the Thai wife told me that the cleaner had been nicked for the offence. She had stolen the master key which I think, reading between the lines, had been insufficiently secured by the Brit proprietor

I claimed the money back on insurance (it would not have been recoverable if it had not been appropriately secured - all you lot who say that hotel safes are a waste of time are talking out of your bottoms) and the hotel apparently reimbursed the other two guys who had no insurance.

This was a 500 baht a night guesthouse BTW.

So life is not always so dysfunctional in Thailand and Pats as you cynical TV lot seem to think!!

Yes - hotel safes are not 100% secure, but it's better than hiding stuff in the room.

Oh yes - and if a member of staff, however cute or personable, keeps asking you if you are going out to eat, to drink, to shag etc then her interest may be about your absence, not about your plans

Edited May 1, 2011 by SantiSuk