Mr Beem's Asian Journal
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Phuket |
I was only going to stay in Phuket for three or four days, it ended up being considerably longer…almost a month. There were several reasons for this, the most obvious being that I liked the place, I had met a rather lovely young lady, I had got to know a bunch of good blokes, I had landed some top accommodation at a really good price I was enjoying myself and I need a rest. But the reasons were not all good…I also got robbed.
I was staying at the Surin Bay Inn, which would have been in the top five list off the nicest places that I have stayed on this trip. The Management were great, Terry an English guy and Mai his Thai wife, they made you fell like part of the family always had time for a little chat or a quite beer, and always made the point of introducing their guests to one another. The staff were the personification of Thai hospitality and had the fastest smiles in the East, proud of where they worked and wanted you to be happy. Basically the place was top to bottom…lovely.
During this trip I have stayed in some complete shit-holes, sometime through bad choices sometimes through lack of choice. Generally the worse the place the more care you take about personal security – keep your head together…keep your stuff together. At the Surin Bay Inn I became a little blasé, it just didn’t seem like the sort of place where bad things happen – anyway this is what happened.
May 31st was my forty third birthday, I was planning a fairly large night so I went down to the Money Changers at the major Mall – Tesco. There I changed five hundred US that should have been enough to last me for the rest of my time on the Island and a fair bit beyond. I used my British passport and visa card as means of I.D. The girl was very pleasant and wished me a happy birthday and warned me about the dangers of excessive drinking – like I didn’t already know, you have to learn something in Forty Three years. I went back to the hotel and brought my bill up to date and then hid the cash money, about twelve thousand baht, the passport, the credit card and an old garbage bag that I use to disguise the travellers cheques, above the wardrobe. Bear in mind that on the dressing table is a Toshiba laptop, next to that is a Minolta digital camera, in the computer carry case is another passport (Australian) and a wallet, so there are what you would call valuables everywhere, most of which I use on a daily basis.
That night I grabbed three thousand Baht about 70 USD from above the wardrobe and went out on the town, and had a great time. Wine women but no song – I have a horrible singing voice.
Next day was a bit of a late start, and a fairly laid back day. That night it was another party night to catch up with the guys I had missed on my birthday and play some pool, so I grabbed another couple of thousand bath just in case. It turned out that it wasn’t that big a night and I got home at a respectable hour around 2:00am.
I woke up at around four with a severe case of cotton mouth and went to the fridge to get a drink and walked through a huge puddle on the floor. The air-conditioner had blown a gasket somewhere. I turned it off and went back to bed. I must point out that I was sadly alone, this is not a tale of the happy hooker rolling a poor gullible tourist, just in case your mind was headed that way. I woke up about ten and went down to breakfast and told the receptionist about the Air/con, she said she would take care of it and was very sorry. When I went back to the room after breakfast the floor had been mopped and the grill was off the front of the air-con and everything seemed to be in hand. So I sat down to do some work on the computer. The house maids were coming and going sorting things out and I didn’t take much notice. Then they brought in two guys from the A/C repair company. This is where I should have been more on the ball, because the A/C was right next to the wardrobe. They came with a step ladder to climb into the ceiling and repair the leak. I just assumed that they would not be able to see the bundle of goodies as there was only a six inch space between the top of the wardrobe and the ceiling. I think that I was wrong.
Later that afternoon I started to pack up my stuff as I intended to leave the next morning. When I put my hand up on top of the wardrobe and felt nothing I nearly had a heart attack. My mind started racing had I move the stuff, had it fallen down the back of the wardrobe – or had I been robed. I went through all my gear thinking maybe I had hidden it somewhere else, then I looked at the back of the wardrobe to see if it had fallen, then I said 'Oh fuck I’ve been robbed.'
I phoned Terry the owner and asked him to come to my room, I told him that I have a problem. We searched the room again. He said you had better come up to my apartment and cancel the credit card and phone the Police.
The first thing I did was to call Visa’s emergency number. They were great. On the spot they cancelled the card and asked me if I needed a new temporary card. I said 'no I have money and I will get the Travellers cheques replaced and use them as I will be getting a new card next month anyway'. They gave me a number to call to see if any transactions had taken place on my card since it had been stolen – luckily none had.
Then Terry and Mai asked one of their staff to drive me to the Police station so that I could report the loss. While this was happening Mai was calling the boss of the A/C company to tell him that his men were suspects. He maintained that they had worked for him for years and there had never been a problem – I understand his loyalty to his staff and his unwilliness to accept the alligations on face value…but it’s not a logical response. There is always a first time.
At the police station it was all very casual, how much can you claim on insurance seemed to be the most important question. I tried to explain that a passport with work permits and visa’s is not covered by insurance. A cancelled credit card that has not been wrongly used is not covered by insurance. Loss of local currency cash is not covered. Travellers cheques are simply replaced – this is not a very good insurance scam. They wrote out the report and asked me if I wanted them to come to the hotel and check the crime scene – fucking right I do. So they came along had a cup of coffee asked the staff some questions had a look at my room and left saying that they would speak to the A/C guys the next morning. I never heard a thing from them again.
It seems like a pretty open and shut case – The A/C guys did it. If only it were that simple. The housemaids had been in the room, one of the cooks had come up to open the A/C grill on his own, and I had been in the room all the time the A/C guys were there – who would you beat a confession out off. I have my own suspicions but you can’t go around making allegations with no proof and I would hate myself if I accused or threatened someone wrongly.
Next morning I contacted American Express to report the theft of the cheques, they asked lots of questions many of which I thought had no relevance to the theft…'which countries will you be visiting after Thailand, do you still operate a business in PNG ' I gave them the numbers of all the cheques that I had purchased, but could not tell them the numbers of the ones that had been cashed. I couldn’t even tell them the exact amount of the cheques that I had cashed. I said 'I purchased USD 9,500 I have cash between 15- 1700 dollars worth, anyway whatever has been cashed before the 31st of May is my responsibility after that, or after the 2nd of June is yours. No more cheques are to be cashed after the 2nd, can you put a stop on them ?' They advised me to go to their local office in Phuket town and fill out some forms and the cheques would be replaced on Thursday, this was Tuesday.
I went to town, filled out the forms gave them photo copies of the coupons and did all that they asked. It wasn’t quite like the commercial, where they come running down the beach carrying your replacement cheques, but who believes that one anyway. I went to the office on Thursday, they said can you call Bangkok on Friday. I called Bangkok on Friday. The man on the phone said that they felt there were suspicious circumstances and a full investigation would have to take place and that I should call him on the 25th June. I asked what he felt was suspicious maybe we could clarify it now. He said 'You do not know the exact amount of the cheques that were stolen, you were in the room when you think they were stolen, you did not use the Hotel safety box…all very suspicious'. Now as you know I am not a man given to cursing and swearing. But .... what is the point of Traveller’s Cheques.
I am writing this story in Phnom Penh Cambodia on the 14th June and I still have not been reimbursed. That I feel is a bigger crime than the one the thief committed. I never trusted him to provide a service and I never paid him to provide that service either. Which is exactly what I did with American Express. The cheques have been cancelled they have paid nothing but they still have my money in their account – is that Corporate theft. If it’s not legally wrong then at the very least it is morally corrupt.
People have advised me not to say anything as they can destroy your credit rating – what the hell is all that about. If any of you have experienced the same thing I would like to hear about it, the feed back that I receive is that Amex are the bandits of the credit industry. Maybe this should be looked into ?
The night of the theft Terry and I were out going through the hotel garbage late into the night. The man was distraught, This was the first time that a theft had ever happened at his hotel. I feel bad that I was the one who spoiled his record, And now a shadow of suspicion hangs over my head with Amex’s treatment of me. So all in all my wonderful memories of Phuket have been tainted by this unfortunate and undeserved treatment.
