Who To Call ?

[brummiebob]

Hello, New Member here, I hope I could be of service

There's actually a service by the local boys in brown where for a monthly fee, they put a police letterbox on your front door, making your house part of the patrol route, the officer on patrol then has to sign in on the logbook in the letterbox, someone in my village in Bangkok has it and the boys do come round about three of four times a night and during the daytime too.

As for how much this cost, there's the official price and also some lubrication required to get things going which depends on which stations your house falls under the jurisdiction of,

Also for the holidays like Songkran and New Year where many Thais will leave their house for extended periods,

there's a similar scheme where you let the local bobby knows that you'll be out from when to when and they will come round and keep checking on the house, this is actually free but only during the holidays of course, as to having the knowledge out in the open (in the police station at least) that there's an empty house actually is a wise thing to do or not is another issue.

Where I work, (retail) we just hire a policeman, and he's supposed to come around and hang around our store for things like shoplifting, etc.

We do this in every of our stores even in Bangkok too, most jewellery shops seems to do it as well. in practice it varies, some police guys would do this outside his official shift, when he's off duty and would be present with us the whole time, in Pattaya some of the police guys we managed to hire do it while they are on duty, so they are not present but they are supposed to turn up when we call during the time that they clock in with us, so at least we have a point of contact that can smooth things over with the station as for the cost, I can tell that for 9-hours shift, you can expect to pay no more than 20,000 per month, the policeman is happy to have extra income and the cost is not more than hiring a private security company or expensive security systems, put you probably cant just walk up to your local station and demand to hire some off-duty guys to keep a watch on your house, as with everything in Thailand, contacts is key,

it's not unusual when moving into new house to turn up at the local station and gets acquainted with the local chief with a gift baskets or a black label in tow(I think wines has become popular now too, the Australian wine "Penfolds Bin 2" is the currency of bureaucracy these days, but I digress)

[brummiebob]

Sorry, I didn't see your earlier post about the red police mailbox before I post my post

I don't know much about the price, but for only a few thousands bath a month is pretty good value but in my experience only people with connections managed to get them on their house, I often see them on houses belonging to retired police or army generals, (maybe they get them for free?) I know it's possible to get it on regular peoples' houses but maybe the hassle of negotiating red tapes is not worth it

If you live in a Village then get together and make the village pay for one,

A shotgun with beanbags sounds nice, but I don't think you can get those things here, certainly not legally.

We have the patrol service in our gated community too, I think it's 1,000-1,500 baht per month, and it may be part of why they come when we (rarely) need them. They put up this small red mailbox on the outside, usually with some sort of police sticker. Try driving around your neighborhood and see if you spot any.

[jbrain]

I can tell that for 9-hours shift, you can expect to pay no more than 20,000 per month,

That's quite a price for a policeman who isn't present, and earns less than half of that in a job where he has to be present. Don't you think so?

[brummiebob]

As to get back to topic, the local number of the police stations is a better choice than calling 191, but I don't know if the guy manning the phone in the middle of the night would be able to converse in English, Soi 9 must have some FPV around but dark sides stations like Bang Lamung, Huay Yai or Na Jomtien?

[brummiebob]

I can tell that for 9-hours shift, you can expect to pay no more than 20,000 per month,

That's quite a price for a policeman who isn't present, and earns less than half of that in a job where he has to be present. Don't you think so?

We actually pays closer to 15grand, but we hire lots of them so if a Jewellery store jut hire one guy from 9-5 it might costs more, so I say expect to pay no more than 20large

In some places of ours in Bangkok, they do stick around, sometimes when we call the guy that's supposed to be on duty and he can't come out, he'll call his mates at the station and they'll come faster than we were to call the station ourselves

We get a mix of guys, one guy could be a traffic guy, the next could be in crime suppression or even riot control, some of these guys even manage to snag a few gigs like these, in effect earning double shift in addition to their regular police income that's like 7-8000 a month?

This is all above board off course, but who knows how much these little guys have to pay back to their 'big brother' that managed to land them these jobs, and amongst other income that's available to the uniform.

This is why every year at the police examinations, there are ten of thousands of people applying for a few hundreds job openings, even though the police starting salary is (i think) 6000 Baht a month

Edited April 8, 2013 by brummiebob

[Beardog]

I can tell that for 9-hours shift, you can expect to pay no more than 20,000 per month,

That's quite a price for a policeman who isn't present, and earns less than half of that in a job where he has to be present. Don't you think so?

And the worst part is: when we got 2 teams of officers (a price for each individual team) The first set of cops were worthless. They came by at 6 pm promptly evry nite for the first 6 days(was suppose to be random times & preferably from 11pm-6am times) after 6 days they didn't show up for 3 days when they were back on they stayed for another 6 days at 6pm checkins. Alisa tried to tell them 6 pm worthless timing come later. Sooo they went on vacation for 2 weeks & hadn't seen hair nor hide of the BIB. But at the end of the month they were back for payola time faithfully. Alisa & I told them hit the bricks they are worthless & were not worth paying for the service. The second officer & his cousin were great & came with a gun & not afraid to use it & came at very random times in the evening. Unfortunately the one time we went to his place at 6:30 pm & joined him for some beverages(his wife ran a beer & mini food market) Our house had a pineapple field behind & was scoped out by one of the workers. He was ultra pro unlike the first idiots. No prints . He knew we were only gone for 20 minutes so he only got 1 phone a hard drive & my ailing120 gig Ipod & 68 USD. The bastard probably watched us go to Juks house( the cop we used) We left our slider windows open with screen shut. He used our Thai shove to break the security grate & went right in. Our new house a crowbar won't break the security gates but can still be breached with a hacksaw or a portable welding settup.This house is more on the roadside & would be a heck of a lot harder to waltz in & start thieving. Too many dogs around and people actually do look out for each other here. Almost hard to believe living in Thailand & people care about neighbors getting hit by thieves.

J if nothing else you can look for the local puy yi ban & ask for the officer near your area & use the service or at least get a number to call. The local land office or the fire dept would also have a number to call. If you are ever seeing a thief in your house call the fire dept first & the heat 2nd. The fire dept will 100% be there first & the police will come when they get around to it.And the fire dept has numbers of cop buddies to call that you won't have available to you (most likely)

[brummiebob]

As for the cost, 15,000 is very top end starting salary for freshly university graduated kids, and if they were to only just show up when called, I'd fire their asses in a hearbeat

But the police do comes with some special privileges, like being able to carry a gun

but even for someone that even just walks around with a gun, in a retail store like mine is probably an overkill, but for Jewellery stores and armoured cars, they could be worth their weight in gold

Remember that unlike europe, even regular police, even the traffic guys carry guns here, and guns here costs 60-70,000 Baht for you and I, Okay Government official like police can get subsidies for guns so the prices for them is more like 40,000, paid out of their own pocket of course, they have paid it back somehow

Considering that in order for civilians to be able to get a 'carry' permit as in being able to holster a loaded gun around as opposed to just transporting them unloaded from place to place, the permit needs to be signed by the minister for interior, as how much that would cost, I wouldn't dare to hazard a guess, probably if you need to ask, you can't afford it

(but to guard your home or business (like a farm of jewellery store), no carry permit is needed, so just a permit to have/buy firearms is enough, usually the gun dealer can arrange this for you)

I don't necessarily condone the practice of paying for police of course, just letting you know the practice

[Phil Conners]

Can we please try to stay on topic - who do you call if you are burgled in Pattaya. Thank you.

A couple of off topic posts were deleted.

[brummiebob]

ฺBanglamung Police Station

[brummiebob]

Pattaya Police Station 038-420802-5

HuayYai 038-938399

Najomtien 038-255700

Most Police in Pattaya area seems to be able to communicate in English somewhat, knowing the streets arrangement, I probably couldn't even give directions to the Police in Thai even,

In Bangkok if your calls to the local station goes unanswered there are Traffic/ Police FM talkback Radio Stations(in Thai) run by the Police's PR department that would always manage to light some fire under the local stations butt and get them out quick.

Getting to know your local rescue teams isn't a bad idea, technically they can't help much, but sure they're willing to help put some boots down, especially if the per's still around and they have radios that can contact the police's despatch and some are police volunteer in some capacity anyway

Pattaya's callcentre 1337 number seems to be pretty good in English and I always manage to get them pretty promtly without being put on hold forever unlike the police's number they can probably take down your details and forward it in Thai to the right place

Edited April 8, 2013 by brummiebob

[jbrain]

Pattaya Police Station 038-420802-5

HuayYai 038-938399

Najomtien 038-255700

Pattaya's callcentre 1337 number seems to be pretty good in English and I always manage to get them pretty promtly without being put on hold forever unlike the police's number they can probably take down your details and forward it in Thai to the right place

Is the 1337 callcenter manned 24/7 or only during office hours. If so this would indeed be a valuable option for Pattaya and surroundings,

Also thanks for posting the screenshot of the Banglamung police emergency sticker. This is the kind of response I was looking for.

I would want to suggest that the numbers in Brummiebob's post are added to Jai Dee's pinned topic

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/42559-pattaya-local-phone-numbers/

I also just notice that the Banglamung emrgemcy number actually was in that topic all those years already.

[fakename]

Guess no one has come up with any phone numbers, so we are stuck with defending ourselves. I live on a 50 house estate, and there are a couple of guards on the gate all the time, and then they drive around a few times on their bikes, but not sure how it would discourage any burglars. We will see what happens on the holidays, since most of the residents will be gone. We have a few soi dogs, that dont like strange people, but a little poison has been known to quite them down. Most residents have a dog or two, but if someone is gone, I dont know if the neighbors dog will have a lot of affect.

A gun wont help, if your not home. It will just give the thief a good weapon, to use on the next job. If I had a gun, I sure wouldnt shoot it in the dark, so that is a big risk, maybe just a big club near the bead. How many family members have been shot by someone protecting his property?

[rbrooks]

I would rather rely on a good old Rottweiler, Pitbull or German Shepherd than the Thai police. I would always be wary of the Thai police being able to scope your place out while inside to find points of easy access and spot items of high value for his buds to come later and rob you. Nothing beats a good ole fashioned junk yard dog especially the Rotties that will gladly take an intruder down while you are sleeping peacefully away in the your home. They might cost a bit up front but long term maintenance fees are low and loyalty, responsiveness, and effectiveness beats any Thai police hands down.

[Gone]

Option 1) Call the Pattaya People news line and they will bring the police fast trust me. They actuall stay in the banglamung police station and speak English and might call your local cop station.

Option 2) Buy a gun legally and you can use it to protect your house and property legally but you also need to own a Business for this too.

[jbrain]

Option 1) Call the Pattaya People news line and they will bring the police fast trust me. They actuall stay in the banglamung police station and speak English and might call your local cop station.

Option 2) Buy a gun legally and you can use it to protect your house and property legally but you also need to own a Business for this too.

Does the Pattaya People number have someone answering in the middle of the night ?

[jimmybkk]

A shotgun with beanbags sounds nice, but I don't think you can get those things here, certainly not legally.

We have the patrol service in our gated community too, I think it's 1,000-1,500 baht per month, and it may be part of why they come when we (rarely) need them. They put up this small red mailbox on the outside, usually with some sort of police sticker. Try driving around your neighborhood and see if you spot any.

If this is what you mean with a shotgun with bean bags. Then yes they are available and legal in Thailand. I was actually considering to buy one.Seller is by the way a member of this forum. But no, you can't fit them that the first shot is a regular gauge and the next one beanbags.

http://www.thailandairsoft.com/airsoft-guns/shotguns/218/a-k-pump-action-m870-detail#enlarge

Before you buy one I would suggest you confirm details with the seller. I could be wrong but I don't think this fires beanbags. I think it's just a regular spring powered BB (not Bean Bag) gun in the shape of a shotgun that fires standard BB pellets/balls. It may sting a bit if you were hit on exposed skin but I don't think it would cause an intruder to scarper.

What I was referring to is a round for a regular 12-gauge shotgun with a 2" x 2" beanbag in the part of the cartridge that would usually be full of lead shot. It looks like this....

I believe they were/are intended for law enforcement use and from what I've seen if you get hit by one it either drops you... or else makes you hop around going "Ouch! Oooh! Sh*t! Holy cr*p! Oh my God that hurts...!" for a few minutes.

I don't think it would be too hard to get hold of a shotgun here - it would just be a question of how easy it would be to get the cartridges. Having just done a quick search it seems there are plenty of alternatives in the "Less than Lethal" shotgun ammo aisle... http://www.firequest.com/shotgun-ammo.html

[jbrain]

The gun I posted is indeed a regular airsoft gun that uses plastic pellets, however they can be loaded with glass or steel pellets which will hurt more.

They are available in semi automatic which hold 5 - 600 pellets and can fire about 80 pellets a minute.

I guess there is the choice between going illegal, and bean bag guns are illegal so in that case you better go for the real thing and make sure he can't file a claim against you, or go for the legal airsoft gun and count on the fact that the first impression is the most important one .

Those guns look and feel like the real thing, and i think no burglar gonna ask you if he can have a look to verify first, and with some glass or steel pellets you have a good chance they run.

Or you scare the burglar and make him run by the sight you have a weapon, or he doesn't care and comes through and then you better have the real thing and are prepared to use it.

Have a look here to get an impression if it hurts,

http://arniesairsoft.co.uk/?filnavn=/reviews/tanaka_kar98k/tanaka_kar98k_review.htm

Edited April 8, 2013 by jbrain

[Gone]

I have never heard of a bean bag gun. When we were kids a "BB" gun meant "Ball Barring" gun.

[Gone]

Option 1) Call the Pattaya People news line and they will bring the police fast trust me. They actuall stay in the banglamung police station and speak English and might call your local cop station.

Option 2) Buy a gun legally and you can use it to protect your house and property legally but you also need to own a Business for this too.

Does the Pattaya People number have someone answering in the middle of the night ?

Yes they do. 24/7. It's all breaking news for them and like I said they actually hang out in the Banglamung Police station. They get more news late at night then let's say......mid day.

[jbrain]

Option 1) Call the Pattaya People news line and they will bring the police fast trust me. They actuall stay in the banglamung police station and speak English and might call your local cop station.

Option 2) Buy a gun legally and you can use it to protect your house and property legally but you also need to own a Business for this too.

Does the Pattaya People number have someone answering in the middle of the night ?

Yes they do. 24/7. It's all breaking news for them and like I said they actually hang out in the Banglamung Police station. They get more news late at night then let's say......mid day.

Thanks for the confirmation, I think that makes the Pattaya People number a valid option as emergency call.

[Phil Conners]

I have never heard of a bean bag gun. When we were kids a "BB" gun meant "Ball Barring" gun.

[Phil Conners]

More off topic banter has been deleted.

Seeing the question has been answered and a couple of valid suggestions made, this topic is now