Pattaya Mail Letter

[konangrit]

Read this in the letters section of the Pattaya Mail. I don't think the author intended it to be funny, but it made me laugh.

Deported for borrowing a towel without permission

Dear Sir,

A friend of mine who has visited Thailand a few times, retired in England and decided to take a three month break here, with a view of coming to stay permanently.

He stayed in an apartment, but enjoyed using the pool a local hotel, foolishly using their towels. He told me he would take it back to his room, wash it and use it again the next time he went.

He was due to return to the UK on Saturday, but on the Tuesday, was stopped leaving the hotel with a towel in his possession. The police were called. They tried to resolve the situation by suggesting he pay for the towel, and pay some compensation. The hotel would not hear of it and insisted it went to the courts.

He was arrested, placed in handcuffs and taken to the police station, where he was kept overnight, before going to court in Jomtien the following day. He pleaded guilty and was duly fined. As is the law in Thailand, any foreigner committing an offence in this land, he was to be deported.

He was then taken to immigration on Soi Eight to await deportation, being kept in a very small cell with thirty more detainees. He was not permitted to return to his room to pack. Something I had to do for him.

On the Friday, he was taken to Bangkok to spend a night before catching his flight home, but on arriving there, was told his paperwork was not in order. He was returned to Soi Eight immediately, missing his flight. He was kept in cells again, being treated like a criminal, till Tuesday, when he was taken to Bangkok again.

That was the last time I saw him, thinking he would email me when he got home. Not hearing from him, I contacted another friend in the UK, who had been in touch with his sister. The home office had been in touch and said he would be home on the seventh of April. He has been in custody all this time, having paid his due for taking a towel. Some justice!

Ron Simpson

[dr_Pat_Pong]

A tough conclusion to a towel pinch and trespass by using the hotel pool. The pool was probably responsible for the hotel's tough stance.

[KevinN]

Why would he need to use a hotel towel? Maybe so that they would not notice his trespassing on hotel property?

Well in any case it looks like they might have broke him of farting in church.

[bartender100]

Wonder what hotel it was?I think they defiantly over reacted,they are in the hospitality business,and as such should have let him pay for the towel and not involved the police.

They deserve any publicity they get out of this

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Wonder what hotel it was?I think they defiantly over reacted,they are in the hospitality business,and as such should have let him pay for the towel and not involved the police.

They deserve any publicity they get out of this

It'd be a tad difficult for the hotel if all the freeloaders lobbed at the hotel and all of 'em knocked off a towel a head.

[mrmnp]

As we all know so well, there are two sides to "every story". I wonder what the hotel's side of the story is. How many towels did he really pinch? How many times was he warned not to use their pool?

Every crime of petty theft in the west, primarily shoplifting, is prosecuted as a matter of policy to prevent "shrinkage" from destroying any hope of making a profit.

I suspect towel pinchers and free loaders are duly warned as a result of the hotels actions and will wisely stop the practice.

[meemiathai]

Could it've been a farang manager from the hotel who had rejected the money offering to solve the problem? You see, for Thais, you can usually pay them off. But for the farangs, it is the principle not the money.

[possom]

what an idiot ,as has been pointed out ,is probably more to it . i know its hot , but im sure the last time i was in pattaya ,it was by the sea

[konangrit]

Yeah, gotta be more to this than meets the eye. Find it very hard to believe that he couldn't pay his way out of this one. Serves him right for being so tight anyway.

I wonder what he did to piss the hotel management off so much that they wouldn't even accept his money.

[britmaveric]

Has to be something more- just seems silly for being deported over a towel!

[KevinN]

Well maybe they caught him pissing in the pool in the no pissing area instead of the pissing area,,I know the fine for smoking in a no smoking place is 2000 baht,,or maybe he had to much CHANG the nite before and while breaking wind,a little solids escaped into the pool.

[Nam Kao]

Considering they shoot drug dealers, this guy got off light

[Guest IT Manager]

It was the Montien apparently. There is another thread on it but I can't find it.

[britmaveric]

Welcome back ######! Good to see a friendly face.

[Bluecat]

Welcome back ######! Good to see a friendly face.

Yes. We were starting to miss you,...

[britmaveric]

From Pattaya Mail.....

Deported for removing a towel

Dear Editor,

Ron Simpson’s letter (Mailbag, April 9) draws attention to the unfortunate plight of a British guy who was deported for trying to steal a towel from a Pattaya hotel. Ron identifies neither the Brit nor the hotel, so I won’t do so either in order to respect confidences.

Once a foreigner is convicted of any offence in a Thai court, no matter how seemingly minor, he or she will be deported. What happened in this case is mirrored hundreds of times a year in Pattaya across all nationalities. Another complication is that, once convicted in court, a foreigner is not eligible for bail whilst awaiting deportation. You have to serve out your time in the cells whilst the details of your repatriation are arranged.

In the case to which Ron draws attention, the deportee held a return air ticket to UK with a Middle East based airline which always refuses to accept on board people recently convicted in a Thai court. In other words, the air ticket was useless, but luckily the deportee’s relatives came up with funds to arrange the flight on a different airline.

Following his conviction in Pattaya court, the deportee was quickly transferred to the Soi 8 immigration police holding cells; more quickly than usual. These are airier and less grim than the city police lock up facility in Soi 9. The prisoner in question was not in the best of health, but the immigration police fully cooperated when I asked for a doctor to visit and the guy was allowed to take the prescribed medication. He was also allowed sandwiches, chocolate, fruit and water which I took on a daily basis.

It is true that the police’s first attempt to take the prisoner to the Bangkok immigration detention centre failed because of errors in the official paperwork. The deportee in question was not actually on visa overstay, but he almost was, and this caused the police clearance officials considerable difficulty. This kind of bureaucratic confusion is actually not uncommon. A deportee’s file is several inches thick, a quite amazing sight to behold.

In my personal opinion, the Pattaya immigration authorities went out of their way to make the deportee’s incarceration as bearable as possible. The real point, of course, is that once you get caught up in the Thai court system, expect to be miserable for a while.

Barry Kenyon

(Consular correspondent Pattaya area, British Embassy)