Break-In

[Guest]

happened to me once here in thailand, and twice in germany. you'll get over it after some time - even though it is more than disheartening. in one of the burgleries i have lost most of my irreplacable record collection.

 

the more serious issue for you seems to be the desillusionment about thailand, the loss of that 'i love thailand' feeling.

problem is that i think you have been living in your own little dreamworld here, that place you so adored, and now have been rudely shaken out of. thing is that this dreamworld only exists in our fantasy, reality is very different unfortunately. it takes experiences like this to start getting a bit more balanced view on this place here - you can have a great live here, but the other side of the coin is that living here is living in a place with lots of social problems which once a while also us farang get mixed up in. important is not to become too cynical after some bad experience. i have seen so often that move from 'i love thailand' to 'i hate thailand' after some hit like this.

i personally do neither, i am at home here, and have had to learn to deal with both sides, as most people have to do at some point.

 

 

>>>It certainly has changed my whole perspective on the LOS, and, that really is a shame<<<

 

i would not necessarily call it a shame, it only depends what you make of it later on. changing one's perspective is an opportunity to learn.

 

 

 

concerning insider job...

it is nearly impossible to catch the thieves. burglaries are very common here, especially now, and the manpower of the police is simply not enough to pay too much attention to a minor incident such as this. nobody was murdered or injured.

it might not have been necessarily someone from the apartment, it might have been a girl you brought back home (i don't know if you are in the habit of doing so) who then tipped off her friends. that is the number one culprits in the case of farang's apartments, second are maids or security guards.

 

[Guest]

it might not have been necessarily someone from the apartment, it might have been a girl you brought back home

 

In my experience with these type security systems, strangers are not allowed in without same day owner consent or even an escort. It would be very unusual also to let strangers leave alone carrying extra stuff with them. Also remember whoever did this seemed to have knowledge of the vacancy timeframe. One would think also the break in happened very late at night when they would not be observed breaking down the door--also would be unusual to let strangers in at such a time. All things point to an insider to me...

 

[loner w/a boner]

Sorry about your bad experience. I haven't been popped here in Thailand--YET.

 

I've had it happen to me twice in the USA. Once, I opened the door to my house and had two men point their guns at my head and tell me they were going to kill me. When they tell you they're going to kill you, they usually don't. It's when they say "nothing's going to happen" that I worry. I was more angry than scared. I even made a smart-assed remark and got slapped up side the head. They stole guns, cash, etc...really pissed me off.

 

As far as getting over it, first I allowed myself to feel violated--after all, I had been. I didn't go to the extreme of supressing my anger, nor did I grab onto it and hold it, however. I permitted it to flow and pass through me, as best as I could. Also, I used my rational mind (usually an oxymoron in my case). I know that those types of people live short and violent lives. I would kill myself before I allowed myself to become one of them. How miserable they must be. How sick in the soul, daily, evenly constantly condemning themselves, and adding to their own misery. They might smile and laugh now, smoking ya baa, but when the party is over, it will end in misery and destruction for them. As hard as it is to believe now, if you could see what will happen to them, you might even be moved to compassion. There is an old saying, "forgiveness covers a multitude of sins". It did take some months for me to get over it, though. Thinking back, I wonder how many times/years they've rotted in prison, or dead from an overdose/homeowner/compadre, etc... And, if they did have a change of heart, how much guilt they must have felt when they sobered up and realized what they had done.

 

As you know, you won't be getting your non-cash stuff back. It's been fenced by now, unless they're stupid enough to keep some of it. Which just might be the case. Whether you choose to go on the offensive or not is up to you. One option is to install TWO surveillance cameras--one, the dummy, is designed to be stolen by them. The second, the real camera, catching them in the act. You then discretely tell your maid/security guard, etc...that you replaced a lot of stuff and are about to leave town, etc...then just wait. If they kept any lovely pieces of jewelry, you may be able to recover them. Another option is to tell them about re-stocking your goods, then letting them see you leave town all packed-up. Of course, an off-duty and armed police officer/PI is stealthily living there (HEY! It almost worked in Cape Fear.). It'll cost you some bucks, but if you want, it may very well work.

 

I'm sure there are some really creative ways to expose these guys, if you want to pursue it. It sounds like you're not married, but if so, give your wife big hug of support from all of us here. I'm sure she's feeling really vulnerable too.

 

I live in a pretty cheap apartment, but they have 24 hour guards (yeah, right), surveillance cameras in all the hallways, elevator, stairs, etc...I'm going to ask if they record those camera images and archive them for a while.

 

Anyway, take care of yourself. Living well really is the best revenge.

[MaiLuk]

My financial loss was substantial...

I provided some very detailed descriptions ...of the items I lost other than cash .

---

 

I sincerely hope that you are OK financially after they made off with your cash.

 

Seems like some basic investigation by the police would entail fingerprinting the guards and a few of the residents to see if the prints match. May be worth offering to pay a few baht to the police to "defray" the cost for this. This may be useless since the money may have been gambled away by now and items sold.

 

It certainly has changed my whole perspective on the LOS, and, that really is a shame.

---

 

Your loss is a shame, but your change in perspective is not. Your eyes have been opened. A quick story about my eyes being opened.

 

In a town a couple of hours outside of BKK, the GF and I decided to walk the 3 kilometers home at 2am from the thai disco. As we were walking the road became very empty with nothing but jungle on either side, though it had street lights.

 

Two thaiguys on a moto pull up on the way home from the disco, the guy on the back jumps off and starts talking at us in thai in a friendly tone. He gets close enough to me, i never expected it (my own fault for being drunk) and did not see it either, nailed me with a HARD punch to the mouth.

 

In the two seconds it took for me to get re-oriented, he was already back on the moto speeding off. Big gash inside and another outside of my lip, bleeding enough for a puddle to form (was still bleeding next day). As i'm spitting up blood I look around, the road is completely empty in both directions and suddenly i realize how stupid i was to be out here with the gf like this, fully expecting the moto guys to return for some more. No good natural weapons laying around either.

 

They never came back and we walked home the rest of the way. A girl we knew came to have a look, said sometimes this can happen if a thai man does not like your face ::

 

I must have missed the travel warnings about that.

 

About the aftermath, I could be seen the rest of my visit alternating between staring down every thai guy who came close, or avoiding thai guys altogether. The guys always hanging around a certain stretch of road in town all day seemingly doing nothing, they took on a different persona in my view, to be absolutely avoided. Had fantasies of seeing the puncher and taking him down. My search for the guy resulted in me seeing five different guys who looked like him.

 

Today no hard feelings toward thailand or even thai guys, don't even care about the guy who had some fun at my expense. But the lesson was brought home and not forgotten: be careful. I was very lucky, it was 2am and had placed myself and the gf in a position where very bad things could have happened and the busted lip was a small price to pay for my new found knowledge.

 

I think your loss was no small price, but you have gained now that your eyes are open. Also if you're gonna live there get yourself a .45 (advice you will get only from american :.

 

MaiLuk

 

[Guest]

>>>Also if you're gonna live there get yourself a .45 <<<

 

 

...and go to jail for posessing an illegal firearm (more than difficult for a foreigner to legally have a gun here).

 

 

 

 

[MaiLuk]

All things point to an insider to me...

---

 

The guards are likely suspects but may have let someone else in to do the job so prints won't help. Neighbor may have had a friend do it, so again prints won't match.

 

Sarisin has to get the hell out of that apartment or he'll just go crazy suspecting everyone. Will also help him get over it alot sooner.

 

 

[MaiLuk]

Understood. Everyone has their own tolerance for risk and i know most would not/do not follow my only half way serious advice about that.

[bigal]

I had a simular situtation, no robery was involved, it was a life threating situation that had to do with health and safety.

My wife and i went through the trip to the plice station. My wife

is politicaly connected, plus her gf's husband is one of the big men in The King protective detail. We are tracking down the person who was responsible for our near death; we live in a top end condo, someone through a lit cigaret out of an uper storry window and it flew in our condo and started a fire.

There is a big anti coruption campain going on In Thailand so you have to be very careful mentioning rewards to the police.

[short-time]

I see you got my email after all, figured that address was dead as you seem to change mailboxes as often as most guys change their socks?

 

Sorry that you had to cancel a trip to AC over this. Probably just as well though as it's unlikely you would have enjoyed yourself wondering if your place in BKK was being burglarized. I think changing apartments after a break-in is essential. Not only to rid yourself of reminders, but repeat offenders. When I got cleaned out the SOB's returned in less than two weeks for a repeat performance! Guess they figured they missed something. They didn't.

 

After moving to a location about a mile away I thought that would be the end of it, but damned if I wasn't startled awake just a few months later at around 4 am by a second-story-man trying to get in a window after jumping from the roof of an adjacent building onto a tree limb? Following that, I bought a man-eating 100 lb. dog (Rhodesian ridgeback) ? never had a problem after that. Unfortunately, a big dog is probably not an option for someone living in BKK. On the other hand, I recently read about a guy who kept a 400 lb. tiger in his Manhattan apartment?

 

Anyway, great to see you posting again.

 

ST

 

[Guest]

Recording what goes on in your apartment, especially when you are not there, might be your best bet.

 

I plan on hooking up some motion detector cameras and transfer that over the internet to a DVD recorder which can be later played back to see what has been happening. If you neighbors, guest, etc were aware of this, I think they would go elsewhere. As for valuables, I have hid them in such places most will not look for - books with storage cavities, shaving cream cans that have no shaving cream in them but can open up so as to hide items, etc.

 

2 safes setting out in the open is an open invitation.