Beating Pattaya’s Burglars

PATTAYA: -- A Thai friend of mine was recently burgled in Pattaya. Three years ago he bought a safe.

After he'd read all the stories about small safes in Pattaya’s hotel rooms being walked out the door, never to be seen again, and deciding even slightly larger ones were too prone to being carried off by a couple of burly thieves, he went for a major upgrade and bought himself one that had to be carried into his house and up the stairs by FOUR men.

And there it sat unmolested for 3 years until recently, when his house was burgled while he and his wife were at work.

The burglar appeared to be professional and determined. He'd spent a lot of time breaking into the house, patiently trying different ways in, yet there were no fingerprints left on any surface inside or out, or on the safe itself.

Once inside, the the forensic evidence (such as it was, or ever is here – probably the remains of a packed lunch and a sleeping bag) suggested the burglar had spent many hours trying to get into the safe.

He couldn't work out the combination for the outer door, but he eventually succeeded in taking off the handle and the combination lock, and then removing the outer door of the safe.

After all the trouble of doing that, there was another door with another locking mechanism inside, which he could never have got into, and which forced him to give up, after what the police said looked like many hours of hard work.

Full story and a picture of the safe HERE

-- IN PATTAYA NOW 2011-12-13

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Hmm. I think I'll just stick with bank accounts.

I think there is a civil servant, Supoth, who wishes he had a really, really good safe. Maybe more than one.