What should I have done differently?

[stonepony]

Before I get started let me say that I am a first time caller, long time listener to nanaplaza. Many thanks to all the posters from all around the world who make this board the wealth of knowledge it is today for anybody traveling to Thailand.

 

The following happened one night on my last trip; my little one is a regular I have seen on my last three trips:

 

After a night out on the town and some fun in the sack, the little one says she is hungry and wants to get something to eat. So we head out the to one off the side walk cafes between Soi 7 and Soi 11, I believe. It is now somewhere in the neighborhood on 3:30am. I'm sure most of you know what it is like at that time, very crowed, music blasting everywhere and many shady characters in different states of intoxication.

 

We sit down and after a few the little ones friend joins us and we are eating away. At the table next to us, some guy is getting a little loaded and acting like a jerk, taking off his shirt and acting like Mr. Macho. He was sitting with two ladies who looked like they have been around the block once of twice.

 

Within a half an hours time this guy goes from Mr. Macho to Mr. Comatose. He had much difficulty putting his shirt back on. When the lady came over and asked for the bill to be paid, it took him forever to do this simple task. All this time the three of us are watching closely. Before too long the guys wallet was in the ladies hands and it was obvious they were about to rip him off.

 

I tell my girl that I am going to put a stop to this and both girls say no I should not since this could be very dangerous. After a lot of back and forth with my girl comes the moment of truth since it is obvious the two ladies are about to leave with his wallet. I stand up and walk over to the table and say what?s up with the wallet and the lady tells me ?we pay for him?. I say bullshit and tell both ladies I saw him pay the bill already. I take the wallet out of her hand with no problem. I check out my table and both girls are nowhere to be seen. They have both taken off.

 

When I say this guy was Comatose, I am not exaggerating, I would talk to him and all I would get back was a blank stare. Hey fool you are about to get ripped off, blank stare. What hotel are you staying at, blank stare. Here, take your wallet and put in your pocket, same stupid blank stare. At this point I?m not sure what to do, I look around and I see that I am making a scene, which was making me a little worried since my girl told me this could be dangerous.

 

I tell myself, if this guy is so stupid to get this drunk, maybe he deserves to get ripped off. I put the wallet in his hands and take off while watching my back. I don?t know what happened after I left but the ladies would have had no problem taking his wallet again. My girl was waiting for me in front of the hotel.

 

Now back at the hotel after thinking about the situation some more, I truly believe the guy was Comatose because he was drugged, not because he was drunk, which made me feel bad since I?m sure he was ripped off after I left.

 

So this is my question, what should I have done differently? Should I have not gotten involved? Should I have done more? Is it each man for himself? Be easy on me, this is my first post.

[Zaad]

Be easy on me, this is my first post.

You should know that, being a long time listener to nanaplaza as you call youself, posters will be judged on their words and not amount of posts.

 

So this is my question, what should I have done differently? Should I have not gotten involved?

I would have probably done the same.

Would personally be very hard for me to watch such thing happen without doing squat about it.

Sure you could've done more...babysitting him till he sobers up...but that's really his problem and will hopefully learn his lesson.

You did max. IMO.

 

Is it each man for himself?

Better yet..each person for him/herself? Seems like it sometimes, good to have some folks like you around to decrease the negative number

[pattaya127]

You've done the right thing. And you seem right on the drugged out thing too. Nice of your Gf not to wish to get you in troubles, but Girls (uh...thais?) are notoriously known for not getting involved. That's their thing, yours was to help a fellow human being in duress.

 

If the guy could not even utter where he stayed, it's hard to see what else you could have done. Assuming I'd be in the same situation and interpretate the scene as you did, I'd really would have tried to find where the guy stayed, and take him there.

 

About the commotion I just would tell people i know him, or he is a friend of a friend. Did you feel at any point, that you were unsafe?

[Lord Toad]

 

I suppose if you thought he was drugged you could have called a taxi and sent him to Bumungrad Hospital (maybe with a note). Assuming he had some means of paying they would have sorted him out. Of course being ripped off may have been cheaper!!

[Zorro]

I wasn't there and it is up to you whether you think that you were in any personal danger but from your account

I don't see how you would be in any personal danger given that you were i assume relatively sober and in a public place.

You did the right thing by intervening.

You might have been able to do more by looking for a policeman or hailing a cab etc

Personally i would find it very difficult to ignore such a blatant crime right under my nose.

How would you feel if it were you who were drugged and nobody intervened when they could have?

[Nervous_Dog]

Not wanting to rain on your parade, but what do you call a long time listener, as you joined:Registered on 06/07/2004 08:12

 

Any way, maybe you could have put him in a taxi, or taken him home to your place?

 

Never mind it's hard to judge just how far to go to help someone, how far you want to risk yourself,

 

Good luck, post more,

 

JB

[BelgianBoy]

JB,

 

There is no need to register in order to read the board...... we have members here and we have guests.....

 

As for StonePony, I think he did right, not sure if I would have gone throught the trouble to be honest......

 

BB

[Guest]

You did the right thing and nothing bad happened to you. I guess they could say, "you can take the farang out of farang land, but you can't take the farang land out of the farang" ha ha ha

 

Rug

[khwaimaisabai]

Nervous_Dog said:

Any way, maybe you could have ..... taken him home to your place?

Hi nervous,

HIghly dangerous, imho.

There are some (many?) strange people in BK and to carry a complete stranger who is drunk, drugged, or both back home is asking for trouble. Best bet might have been to call the Tourist Police, or take him to a hospital. I think OP did as much (and more) than could be expected. It's a matter of making a judgement call at one moment when he himself may not have been thinking too clearly either.

For the "victim" this is good evidence that if anyone is planning a long night out, better to take your spare wallet and just a little more cash than you think you will need. This at least limits the damage if something like this happens.

Khwai

[thalenoi]

You handled this very well.

Some times I do feel uneasy early in the morning at foodstalls, it is a strange world out there and you are right to stay alert.

 

Not much more I would have been able to do, but I would certainly have acted along the same lines. Finding a cop nearby maybe, but that is not easy.....finding one when you need them, then explaining what's going on.....