19:25
Reporter
Briton who was robbed in a hotel in Bangkok says he was told by Thai police to claim on insurance as they were not going to investigate – despite the fact that the thief, a lady boy, was not only caught on CCTV but also left a copy of his ID with reception.
Kevin M (name withheld) was robbed on the first night of a Thai holiday in Thailand. To cap his holiday, shortly before his return home he and his friends were victim of a shakedown by Thai police in Pattaya while riding their hired motorcycles.
The young engineer from Manchester had for a long time been a ‘Muay Thai’ enthusiast and came to Thailand to find a ‘Muay Thai’ school.
He arrived on June 6th and checked into City Lodge Hotel in Sukhumvit Soi 19 and that night went out with his friend on the town. They got home in the early hours.
He decided to go out for one more drink and was directed by hotel staff to a mobile bar on the corner of Sukhumvit and Asoke. A ‘girl’ there kept offering to go back to his room for sex, but he declined, he said. He said he had successfully been fighting/fending women off all night while inspecting a nearby infamous red light area. Eventually, he says, he agreed to a massage at 500Thai baht (just over £10)
On returning to the room he gave the ‘girl’ 500 baht in advance and locked his belongings in his safe, or last least thought he had. He had an unimpressive massage and then asked 'her' to leave. She begged a drink from the hotel mini-bar and he says he must have fallen asleep in the meantime.
On waking up in the morning he found that two credit cards, his mobile phone, and £600 cash was missing.
He rushed to reception and eventually found out that staff had not only caught the culprit on television but also had a copy of ‘his’ ID.
Kevin says he was shocked to find out that his masseuse was a masseur and that he had had a man in his room that night but said he also actually felt relieved that he had not been murdered as he had heard stories like this. It was a salutary first night.
He then rushed to the police station at Lumpini to report the theft, together with a copy of the ladyboy’s ID. But police would not accompany him back to his hotel to see the CCTV footage.
He said he found police were not interested in investigating the lady boy but more interested in finding out what he actually did with the lady boy in the bedroom. 'Nothing!' he insisted. Translation of the police report however has him saying that he invited the lady boy back for sex.
(One good reason perhaps never to give a statement to Thai police without a translator. Had he said he had actually done something with the lady boy, from past cases its seems there's a good chance there would be a queue of police lining up to hear the details)
Police, he said, told him there was little they could do. He should make a statement to claim against insurance. ‘Can I call the credit card company?’ he asked. No. The police did not have this facility.
While this was going an Asian Kevin M with black hair, a strong jaw line, but wearing woman’s clothes, turned up at Bliss-Tel on the ground floor of Seacon Square and made purchases totaling over £900 (44,000 Baht) I would guess more than half the shop's monthly wage bill. The most expensive mobile phone in stock was about 15,000 baht.
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