Phuket bike gang knife and rob two foreign tourists

[NamKangMan]

Have had had 2 similar robberies here in Rawai this past week with knives shown but no stabbings....

One I saw the aftermath of last night about 11pm across from Asia bar Russian girl tossed off her PCX bike dumped in ditch bag cut from her arm.

Girls at the two bars there saw the whole thing they thought it was boyfriend girl friend fighting but really was a armed robbery....in the end

Police and ambulance on scene looked like she was ok though...

The other incident was early am after usa football match same area near Asia bars...

Farang forced off motor bike at intersection 8k baht stolen at knife point.

Probably too common for the media to report on every one now, otherwise they would have no time to write up any other stories.

Edited July 5, 2014 by NamKangMan

[NamKangMan]

I just have thoughts why people risk much by being on the road in the dark of the night. The Italian at 3 am, let him bring home by a female on a bike (bike does not necessarily mean motorbike). Why he didn't take a taxi? More safe I would say.

Then the Russian woman decides to take a ride on her bike along the beach at 3.30 am.... dark as the night, why risk being attacked? Stay in your hotel or if you really have to be outside, take some safe transportation!

A taxi in Phuket at 3am.......aren't we told not to carry too much money!

It is a tourist Island, there is night life to 2am and beyond.

If people have to stay in their hotel because it isn't safe out there they aren't going to have much of a holiday are they. I say it is Thailand's responsibility to protect the tourists/guests. As stated elsewhere many other countries appreciate the business they bring and take special steps to ensure they are safe and treated well. Thailand starts robbing them as soon as they get out of the airport.....

Actually, on Phuket, they have started robbing the tourists before they leave the airport, at the Immigration que.

Edited July 5, 2014 by NamKangMan

[Yann55]

I just have thoughts why people risk much by being on the road in the dark of the night. The Italian at 3 am, let him bring home by a female on a bike (bike does not necessarily mean motorbike). Why he didn't take a taxi? More safe I would say.

Then the Russian woman decides to take a ride on her bike along the beach at 3.30 am.... dark as the night, why risk being attacked? Stay in your hotel or if you really have to be outside, take some safe transportation!

Love it when idiots blame people who are just living their life for being attacked. Their is no blame except on these morons. It's like saying some women shouldn't dress a certain way cause they are asking to get raped. This type of thinking pisses me off. We should be able to live our life at any hour of the day. Especially in Thailand.

I very much agree with you, Wbb, and obviously i'm not the only one.

It's disturbing when you read news like this and inevitably one or several comments pop up which are of the 'blame-the-victim' type : 'He/she shouldn't have been there, shouldn't have worn this kind of dress, shouldn't have said that, shouldn't have acted thus'... as if the violent reactions were normal.

You can't help but wonder what kind of world this 'blame-the-victims' brigade lives in... evidently not the same as ours.

[KarenBravo]

@NKM

Christ on a bike!

Can't you organize your thoughts better and just post once?

If MK1 didn't horn one post in, that would be 14 posts in a row.

Very annoying and does your credibility no good at all.

Edited July 5, 2014 by KarenBravo

[stevenl]

I loved Phuket in terms of the natural beauty, but I had a few experiences with locals that just felt outright threatening. Once in particular when I stopped my bike at a roadside bar just south of Patong on the hill when I got caught in a torrential rain outburst. Nobody spoke English, and about 30 minutes later some very shady and decidedly unfriendly locals -- one who arrived in a truck with a police tag on it -- started drinking there and shooting me looks. I chose to brave the rain rather than stay there.

Sounds really scary, some people were looking at you and they spoke Thai in Thailand. I would not visit the place anymore.

[NamKangMan]

@NKM

Christ on a bike!

Can't you organize your thoughts better and just post once?

If MK1 didn't horn one post in, that would be 14 posts in a row.

Very annoying and does your credibility no good at all.

What can I say, I was on a roll.

Lucky for me, I have no credibility to lose, do you?

Try to stay on topic KB.

[jpeg]

The last time an event occurred like this was when the female Australian travel agent was sadly fatally stabbed and robbed in what was considered an opportunistic attack, June 2012, just over two-years ago.

It will be interesting to see what social-economic background the actual perpetrators come from that inspired them to commit such a crime. In reality, in comparison to other high-profile locations, there is not one city in the world that can be deemed as particularly safe at 3am. However, irrespective of the risk to public safety in spite of this, the doomsayers will still take great pleasure in casting their dark cloud fear upon Phuket once again.

When walking through a souk in Morrocco many moons ago, our 'guide' was pounced upon and hauled off by four burly cops. Could.You.EVER.See.That.Happening.Here?

[starky]

I like guns. Shoot the bastards. If people can not have guns why do cops not do the job?

If you had a gun legally, so would those bastards. Think.

spot on! encouraging a gun culture only ends in the procurement of more guns. More guns equates to more deaths by firearms including hunting, drunken, accidental and all the other deaths that arise from people having easy access to firearms. Of course guns may always be sourced illegally but if everyone is packing you end up with murder rates like the U.S. or Mexico. Where in countries that have stringent gun control laws, think the UK or Australia, there is far less chance of trigger happy tossers shooting each other. As for Jimbolai no offense mate but you must be American, shucks I like guns we should have more of them.... really... Wow..

[starky]

@NKM

Christ on a bike!

Can't you organize your thoughts better and just post once?

If MK1 didn't horn one post in, that would be 14 posts in a row.

Very annoying and does your credibility no good at all.

Hear Hear... well said sir

[MK1]

Update

Phuket News, 5 July 2014, Suthicha Sirirat

Phuket stab-and-rob man 'needed money for younger sister's education'

PHUKET: Police have arrested the knifeman who stabbed and robbed two tourists in Kata/Karon late last night, with the suspect confessing to all charges, including attempted murder.

- See more at: http://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-stab-and-rob-man-needed-money-for-younger-sisters-education-47207.php?news-alert=1#sthash.EkAYSLDD.dpuf

[hawker9000]

Give Puket a miss and go to Pattaya which is much safer and has more to Offer to all travellers.

There are beautiful beaches, great hotels, lovely women and trannies and much more Tourist police looking after tourists. A great place for solo travellers and families too with great shopping and sight seeing too. Paradise on Earth

There's trannies in Phuket too, Jack. You wouldn't be lonely if you actually visited, instead of just sharing your valuable opinion on a forum.

Phuket has somewhere between 2 and 3 million tourists visiting each year and there's only one or two stabbing incidents against tourists each year. Most of the violent crimes are Thai on Thai or Burma on Burma.

Statistically the Island is probably a much safer place than whatever city you come from in the western world.

For the people who are too scared to visit Phuket because they read about the occasional incident like this, you create much mirth and incredulity for us locals. How the hell did you manage to gather enough courage to get on a plane and scurry to your little Issan village!!

..."create much mirth and incredulity for us locals"... not to mention what they're probably NOT doing for your property values, eh? "Scared" to visit"? 'Should read, "have more sense than to visit"...

Yeap, 2 or 3 stabbing incidents per year. That's it. Nothing more worth mentioning. Phuket a totally peaceful, tourist-loving, crime-free, scam-free, laid-back place. 'Has been for years. All the rest is just a vast anti-Phuket conspiracy.

Thanks for taking the time to comment on my post all the way from the good ol US of A, Hawker.

No crime there right, because you and your ilk are allowed to blow away everyone with your assault rifles? All's right in the land of the free! What's the matter, don't they let you come to Thailand fully armed?

Incidentally, they've now caught this gang of druggie adolescents who were doing these robberies. All but one were too young to name.

Yeap. All the way from the USA (where I get my fully legal visas...). And you're quite welcome. See, I realize that the views of an informed and objective foreign observer can sometimes help "you and your ilk" with your perspective, distorted as it must be by the "fog of war" (and emotional as well as tangible investments...). 'Guess that makes me part of that vast anti-Phuket conspiracy. Lol. Almost 30 years of trips to Thailand (yeap, unarmed every time - you're a pretty "mirthful" guy yourself!), so I wouldn't know the first thing about the place - like making an informed decision NOT to take up residence there, esp. Phuket. Well, I do realize that you'd just as soon have the opinions of us non-residents suppressed. And that's too bad.

OK, so let's see here. Too young to name, but not too young to attempt murder, specializing in tourists, eh? So attempting murder while still in drugged adolescence there in Phuket, one shudders to think what these tourist-loving Phuketais graduate to in full adulthood. Taxi drivers? Politicians? Jet ski moguls? ???? Ah, Phuket. Holiday Paradise indeed!

[Felt 35]

Seems the General have to turn is eyes from the Beaches and taxis for a while..........to much of this rubbish youth popping up all over the place

[NamKangMan]

Update

Phuket News, 5 July 2014, Suthicha Sirirat

Phuket stab-and-rob man 'needed money for younger sister's education'

PHUKET: Police have arrested the knifeman who stabbed and robbed two tourists in Kata/Karon late last night, with the suspect confessing to all charges, including attempted murder.

- See more at: http://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-stab-and-rob-man-needed-money-for-younger-sisters-education-47207.php?news-alert=1#sthash.EkAYSLDD.dpuf

He has the physical appearance of a drug addict.

[Jeremy50]

Give Puket a miss and go to Pattaya which is much safer and has more to Offer to all travellers.

There are beautiful beaches, great hotels, lovely women and trannies and much more Tourist police looking after tourists. A great place for solo travellers and families too with great shopping and sight seeing too. Paradise on Earth

Pattaya beaches are a lot of things, but beautiful they are not.

[joejai]

A 500 Baht fine is less than a slap on the wrist. It will do nothing to curtail these vicious robbery attacks. A 60,000 baht fine plus jail time is the very minimum a person committing these crimes should receive.

[Paulzed]

There are a lot of Phuket knockers that love to throw the boot in and the Phuket lovers that have their noses out of place when some one says something bad about PK.

But the fact still remains that PK is a haven for locals and blow ins from other parts of the country, looking for a quick buck at the expense of the Farang/Tourist, they know that 99% of the time they will get away with it and they will continue to do it, and also find more inventive ways to rip people off and the Australian Lady that was stabbed in the heart for her hand bag is a classic example of that.

The Junta cleaning up the taxi filth and the beach side rabble is a start and an admission from the new establishment that there is a serious problem in PK.

The next step is to follow through with some new laws to protect the tourists and hefty jail time for those who don't respect Thai law and people from other countries that support the tourism industry and help to put food on the table for the Thais.

[carmine]

Ten years ago a city in The Philippines introduced standard sentencing for anyone that was convicted of any sort of crime against a foreign tourist. Punishment was 2 years jail and crime against tourists almost disappeared. Of course tourism progressed at an amazing rate. A thought

A thought yes. But unfortunately they just don't seem to get it here.

[F4UCorsair]

Inside job? His female 'companion' escaped!!