Finnish Man Survives Shakedown

In a bizarre story that is yet to have a conclusion, a man from Finland happened to pick up a male bar worker from Boyztown on Friday night the 17th of March and was returning to his room in Jomtien by way of motorbike taxi when the trio were stopped by a car holding six Thai males. Two of these men were wearing police uniforms with the rank of sergeant. This pair asked the Finnish man for his identification papers and other information and then told him he was under arrest, without specifically detailing his alleged crime. The sergeants told the man they were from Prathum Thani province near Bangkok and would have to take him there unless he could come up with the sum of 700,000 baht to avoid prosecution.

The Finnish man said he didn’t have that amount of money lying around but would try and contact friends to raise the cash. He and his Thai male friend were then taken by the policemen to a hotel room in Central Pattaya. Because it was late at night the police and their friends were not as vigilant as they should have been and the bar boy was able to escape from the room while his captors fell asleep. He alerted Pattaya police who returned to the room to find only the Finnish man in residence.

It appears that the police and their accomplices decided to abscond after finding one of their captives had escaped.

Pattaya police began investigations and on Wednesday they arrested a 45-year-old Thai man in Pattaya and charged him with kidnapping and holding a person for ransom. Pattaya police say they are searching for the two Prathum Thani sergeants who appear to have fled.

-Pattaya City News

Wednesday 22nd March 2006

Wow. Like we don't have enough problems with our own police force.

Now we are importing them from other provinces ?

Hope they catch them and make an example of them.

Lets hope they get them and bang them up. There really are some nasty B*****ds around!

Lets hope they get them and bang them up. There really are some nasty B*****ds around!

Not too smart either.

700,000 baht ! That's quite the shakedown, for almost anybody. Do they really think even farangs walk around with that much in their pockets ?

Telling their victims that they would have to take them to some out of the way place near Bangkok if they couldn't pay (instead of to the nearest police station).

Then taking them to a hotel room, not a police station.

These were some really dumb cops (or dumber imposters)

I truly think Thailand would be better of comletely getting rid of the police force.

They seem pretty useless at what they're suppose to do and then all those rogue cops

I truly think Thailand would be better of comletely getting rid of the police force.

They seem pretty useless at what they're suppose to do and then all those rogue cops

I tend to agree with that comment, coppers are so dodgy here, probably best to scrap the lot, and start a fresh.

I tend to agree with that comment, coppers are so dodgy here, probably best to scrap the lot, and start a fresh.

Back home there's always bad press when one cop steps over the line, and you hear the saying "one bad apple doesn't spoil the barrel".

Here it would be the other way around sadly. "One Good Apple gets spoiled in a barrel of bad".

There are some good cops out there, but no doubt after awhile they probably get disenchanted with the system and end up becoming just like the rest.