Alone and scared with a predator outside.

[grimblegrumble]

Before the flaming starts, this is a sensible and honest woman in her late 30's working at a shop in partnership with her sister. They make fried rice, noodles, pasta.

The g/f is sleeping at the shop for the second night due to the rain worried the water might get in and ruin the fridge freezer and other equipment. Each night she has to clean the water from the shop. Normally she would have her sister with her and the sisters husband would take them home at night. Currently the sisters daughter is in Khon Kaen hospital with Dengue fever so the parents are staying there. The roads are not good due to some floodwater for her to travel home on her m/c..

That leads us to tonights events. She has the t.v. on for company while she tries to sleep. Midnight, 1 a.m. 2 and 3 a.m. I have the g/f on the phone. She is scared. There is a man outside the shop. He keeps banging on the shutters wanting to get in to be with her. He sounds drunk. He has been at the shop several time before as a customer. He is 19 and telling her he wants her, wants to sleep with her. She tells him she is not interested as she has a husband (me). Plus she is 17 years older than he.
She has phoned her parents but they cannot help. They are quite old and not too good on their legs and only have an old m/c. There are no other males in the family who can go to the town to help. She tried the police but they do not answer the phone. There are people also sleeping in the shops close by but none go out to see what the commotion is. Maybe they are too afraid to get involved.
Thankfully she had the sense to bolt and lock the steel shutters from the inside but that does not stop her being scared. She can see him sat outside even at 3 a.m.
I am concerned too. I am unable to help because I am not in Thailand currently.

Obviously I understand there is nothing people can do right now. But I am wondering what is the best course of action in the morning when she opens the shop? I have advised her to wait until a female family member can get there. Does she report this to the police? Will they take any action? Is reporting to the police a bad move? Will the police give her a number to call if it happens again or he comes around pestering her?

[cooked]

Sounds like you need to have a chat with your local motorbike taxi riders. They don't need to get violent, just ride by a few times and see what's up.

[longstebe]

Where is this taking place?

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[barrybankruad]

She must go to the police right away. It may cost a bit to get them moving but may be worth it. A quiet word in his ear may be all that is required.

[bino]

I agree with Barry- she needs to call the cops. If her phone is sophisticated enough, make a sound recording of they guy banging on the door and what he is saying to her. Take his picture if she can see the guy from upstairs window or some other safe vantage point. Evidence like this will lend credence to her story with the cops and help to motivate them.

I realize that it is morning now and the guy is probably long gone- too late for any of the above. Perhaps she can talk to the neighbors and see if she can find anyone who heard the commotion last night that will help to verify the story for / motivate the police?

[SantiSuk]

If he still keeps pestering her in daylight hours when he is not drunk (or even if he is just hanging around) she needs to choose the right moment when there are lots of locals around, then launch a verbal hissy fit on him - controlled but outrage - get lots of detail in about what he did during the night.

Get him isolated and ashamed - standard confident female response to the low-life male waster. Yes there is a risk you provoke the wrong response, but the risk of appeasement or doing nothing is worse.

If the situation does not calm down she should not be there alone another night. I would be telling my girlfriend I can replace the freezer but I can't replace you.

[wolf5370]

Get the freezer put on blocks and cover it (on top) with a couple of bin bags to stop it tricking down the back if its coming in through the roof and go home after closing. If it is a village, talk to the village poo yai - that can work wonders (or his wife/daughter). Call the cops when he is banging and be hysterical and scared for you life, they will come then. After the fact they rarely bother - though a purple persuader should motivate them.

[grimblegrumble]

First, thanks for the replies.

He left around 4 this morning. She finally got to sleep and is doing as I insisted and is going to her parents this afternoon to sleep there tonight. She is very tired with so little sleep last night (and the night before due to the water getting into the shop and cleaning up) so is not making much sense on the phone. I'll talk to her again later when she has had a decent sleep.

She did go to the police this morning and they have said they would go to the shop but they have not done so yet. They also did not give her a number to phone that will be answered. Like wolf and barry say, maybe a persuader is needed.

I like the idea of talking to the m/c taxi drivers and I'll ask her if there are any nearby. Maybe worthwhile her buying them a few beers or a bottle of whiskey to get them on her side. They could be a better idea than the police especially if the police do not answer the phone.

The phone idea is very good too and something I would not have thought of. A recording of the banging, his voice and if possible a photo of his face does make sense.

The fridge freezer does stand on the floor. I'll get her to raise it up some to keep water from getting to it. That is another sensible suggestion, as is talking to the neighbours sleeping in their shops.

She is relatively new in this area with the shop, though the family have lived outside the small town for decades in a tiny 10 house village. When her sister comes back after the baby is released from hospital I'll get her to take some time out to get to know her neighbours better.

Good suggestions and I will try to get her to implement them. I'd hate to think some idiot would drive her away from this new business that she loves running. The previous shop she had had too few customers being situated in an area with too few people around. Now she is starting to make some reasonable money even with the rains. I'll post an update when I've had chance to talk to her after she's had a decent sleep.

[sirchai]

Hi,

Honestly, a strange story, as you're not in the country. Usually Thai men wouldn't "just" go to a place and say to a woman that they want to have sex with them.

There's a little problem. You're just her boy friend. Do you know if you're the only one? Thai men usual don't go to places and tell women that they would like to sleep with them.

Especially when other people can listen to them as well.

Here's my five cent. Tell her to record all the bla bla on her phone, then make a photo of him. Then tell her to go to the cops to make a report, where a cop is writing down what bothers you.

Tell her to give the cop a bottle of whiskey and some pocket money. Nothing is free here.

Then make sure that the cop will show up when needed. But first of all think if the story is really true. Wouldn't this guy go into the place when it's open to "talk" to her?

"They didn't give her a number to call?" <deleted>? If she'd made a report, then she'd also have the cop's phone number. Confusing.-

Edited September 26, 2013 by sirchai