Receptionist Drugged, Hotel Robbed By Foreigner In Phuket

[thurien]

Col Arun said the robber was “Middle East looking” with fair skin??????

yes, the typical Aryan from Persia (Iran)

[stevenl]

Where else but the sow's nest of Phuket? The entire city should be closed by the Consumer Protection Office.

Samui according to the OP. But to know that requires reading, and that is not easy for some.

[JetsetBkk]

Not quite sure why this should become a Phuket bashing thread. <snip>

It's what we like to do, Mitch, 'cause we live here.

[whiteman]

Inside job 100% as some one said how long does it take to open all the safes and no other paying customer walks in? not even a lotto seller trying to flog off the rip off lotto tickets to any body who stays there u know the type always popping in.

So no its 100% inside job

Edited January 17, 2013 by whiteman

[chrisinth]

Most modern CCTV systems are now computer based with images stored on Hard Drive. To take away the 'recording' from the CCTV - he would need to dis-assemble the computer case and remove the Hard Drive. Surely this would be in the back office somewhere?

It may be possible they had a pre-historic CCTV system that runs on VHS tapes - in which case he can remove the tape in 2 seconds !

Also usually safety boxes have a twin key system or if one key - only the user has the key and if they lose the key they change the lock. However we don't know what they use there and of course it is possible that they were forced, in which case they can't have been very strong 'safety boxes'.

Room safes are usually cheap and nasty things and I have been to hotels where the room safe is not even secured to anything solid - just sat inside the wardrobe/closet.

Any form of security is only as good as the weakest link. No point having CCTV if the recording hardware is not in a secure room somewhere!

no doubt more info will be forthcoming and it will be interesting.

They could also unplug the monitors, unplug the mains and take the entire machine!

Something often overlooked when installing a CCTV system, where to hide the box in a secure location..............

[Jimi007]

The other local news source said there were two european looking men that struck up a conversation with the officer then offered the officer one of their beers that police suspect was spiked with a drug. A bit different than the Gazette's story.

[Kripe]

No CCTV show that this was a foreigner - was it? No CCTV show the reseptionist drinking cofee...

[Kripe]

There were 3 million THB in the guest deposit boxes and the hotel staff didn't steal it ?? And why would the guests keep that much in cash to start with? This story is full of holes.

Insurance?

[petedk]

I don't believe the story. Never been to an hotel yet where you've needed to drug the receptionists. They seem to be able to fall asleep on their own!!

I've never been to a hotel where the receptionist would accept a cup of coffee from a guest.

The whole story sounds wrong to me.

Security guard, not receptionist.

I don't know the scenario but not difficult to imagine how the perpetrator could gain a guard's confidence, walk around the corner to the 7-Eleven and return with a couple of coffees.

But it could just as well have involved collusion with the guard. If I find out more I will post it.

The headline says "receptionist" and "receptionist" is mentioned in the story.

Do I misunderstand something here?

[Lancelot]

Farangs drugging Thais? That's a twist.

You couldn't make this stuff up. If true, gee, the locals will really love us now

[Rosco911]

Complete fabrication.

Thai security never sleep.

[jboras]

I bet the foreigner had dark skin, spoke perfect Thai, broken English,.... oh come on...

He must have known the hotel laypout pretty well to know where the security video was housed, master keys kept..., etc....

[Hans Sierhuis]

drugging a Thai and 150.000 baht per locker? sure! I believe in santa as well

[madmitch]

Inside job 100% as some one said how long does it take to open all the safes and no other paying customer walks in? not even a lotto seller trying to flog off the rip off lotto tickets to any body who stays there u know the type always popping in.

So no its 100% inside job

The headline says "receptionist" and "receptionist" is mentioned in the story.

Do I misunderstand something here?

This happened in the middle of the night so the only possible people around would be drunken tourists returning after a night out in Patong. Hence why I would use the word security guard rather than receptionist (though you are right with reference to the original story)..

Re-reading the original story I see it doesn't mention at what time this occurred but it was in the early hours.

One other point: the 3m baht figure would be arrived at by asking the guests what they had in the locker so if there's any monetary fraud being committed here it is not necessarily being done by the owners. I do not know if the owners lost any of their belongings (apart from the security video!).

[crazykopite]

Is it April Fools day because I would have to be a fool to believe this got to be an inside job !!!!!!!!!! and am I to beleive that the cctv recording box was in public view for all to see and that all the safe keys were there next to the safes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[yankee99]

$75,000 dollars worth of stuff . Thats a 3,500 dollar average i doubt it.

[lounger]

Patong. Valuables were stapled into an old brown envelope and put in the reception desk drawer. Stayed there 6 months never any problem........................

Samui: a bar doing visa runs used to have dozens of passports in a cardboard box behind the counter....

Pattaya: getting my mobile unlocked. Stall in shopping mall gave me a receipt which was a business card, he wrote Sll on the back.

All these stories about multiple breakins and drugged people seem to belong in a different world to the one I live in................... I guess because I frequent mum and dad type establishments not what look like temp staff.

Touch wood...............

[96tehtarp]

Farangs drugging Thais? That's a twist.

This has been going on for more than 20 years. Twenty years ago, or more, I recall the bar girls warning each other of their sisters who were wearing 5-10 baht in gold waking up at 14:00 groggy and less their gold. This is not new.

Cheers,

96tehtarp

[renrut salohcin]

Who puts there Mobile/Cell phone in the hotels safety deposit boxes ??? would they not be using them

Anyone who wants to, surely?

[Paangjang]

Farangs drugging Thais? That's a twist.

My understanding, farang refers to the westerners, especially the white ones.

Not sure that middle-easterners fall into this category.

Some thai's even call black people "farang see dam" (Black farang) Think the farang word gets slung around abit too loosely.

[A Member]

Farangs drugging Thais? That's a twist.

Now where have I heard that story before ? To start with, Pattaya and on more than one occasion

[smileydude]

story smells like pla-ra

and putting the blame on some ficticious middle eastern dude.... sounds typically thai style racial stereotyping as it would never seem believable if they profiled a blue eyed blonde farang no?

At least make up a more believable story... geesh

Edited January 17, 2013 by smileydude

[A Member]

Farangs drugging Thais? That's a twist.

Now where have I heard that story before ? To start with, Pattaya and on more than one occasion

Forgot to say in Pattaya many years ago a hotel involved in a "drugging" incident said they had apologised to the guests but would not be giving any compensation - how did they know what was in the safety deposit boxes ?

[market trader]

Not quite sure why this should become a Phuket bashing thread. There are enough of those anyway.

This could have happened anywhere.

I know this hotel (in fact I nearly posted this story on TV on Tuesday when I knew about this but didn't for the sake of the hotel owners and guests). It's in a fairly quiet area, mostly frequented by Swedish and just inside there's a front desk with one security person and the safety lockers are right behind. I'd never looked to see how secure they seemed but the fact they were forced open (not mentioned in the story) implies not very. Rooms are quite a distance from the front desk so I can see how nobody heard anything. It was obviously a targeted robbery.

Room safes are far from perfect but are they a better option than security lockers at the front desk?

Yes this could have happened anywhere. But it didn't. It happened in Phuket where most of the bad things seem to happen. Maybe that is the reason for Phuket bashing.

[HaleySabai]

After I was thinking it was an inside job and a fabricated story of a foreigner.

....mmm...me too! I guess these are automatic conclusions that arise after living here "too long" Edited January 17, 2013 by HaleySabai

[renrut salohcin]

There were 3 million THB in the guest deposit boxes and the hotel staff didn't steal it ?? And why would the guests keep that much in cash to start with? This story is full of holes.

It wasn't all cash, the report said that belongings worth 3M baht were stolen.

[bikkalad]

i smell a rat there...............

[amboy]

Sounds like the same guy from Samui and the cops arrested the wrong guy over there. Same modus operandi.

Agreed! Same MO. I hope they catch these guys and let the poor American guy go.

[PoorSucker]

The Samui story.

[Monkeyrobot]

Inside job blame the farang, give them 10 points for the idea.