Receptionist Drugged, Hotel Robbed By Foreigner In Phuket

[jimbeam1 191]

I wonder what the receptionists cut was?

jb1

[haybilly 377]

Sweeeet!!

Suppose it won't work twice, though??

[SOTIRIOS 3,638]

...rule #1....do not ever believe anything a Thai person says...especially when a crime is involved.... (...you take it from there....)

[madmitch 11,463]

Not quite sure why this should become a Phuket bashing thread. There are enough of those anyway.

This could have happened anywhere.

I know this hotel (in fact I nearly posted this story on TV on Tuesday when I knew about this but didn't for the sake of the hotel owners and guests). It's in a fairly quiet area, mostly frequented by Swedish and just inside there's a front desk with one security person and the safety lockers are right behind. I'd never looked to see how secure they seemed but the fact they were forced open (not mentioned in the story) implies not very. Rooms are quite a distance from the front desk so I can see how nobody heard anything. It was obviously a targeted robbery.

Room safes are far from perfect but are they a better option than security lockers at the front desk?

[unanimosity 715]

The logical explanation is that they were purchasing cheap pre-pay cell phones here and keeping their expensive phones from their perspective countries in the hotel safe deposit boxes.

Cell phones in North America typically do not allow interchangeable sim cards, they are dedicated to a specific provider.

[laurentbkk 2,782]

oh well ... this happen everywhere in the world ..... but 3 millions bath in belonging 21 safe that makes 142,857 baht per safe .... pretty much a lot for such a small hotel .....with only one receptionist and no one around ..... strange to me .

[maturebrit 65]

i bet there will be so many insurance claims for deposit box contents..... most of which never existed...

this whole story sounds so very suspect

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[KarstenBoAndersen 84]

Inside job for sure !

Copycat is on the move !

Who is the owner of that hotel ??

[johnnynmonic 268]

And the scumbag even had the presence of mind to remove the CCTV tape. Now, THAT's what I'd call professionalism. The supposedly foreign thief's local counterparts still have a lot to learn...

Yet a few detail in the story somehow don't add up:

The thief broke into 21 safety deposit boxes behind the counter. How long did that take and how shoddy were those locks? And were there no other people around in the lobby the entire time? Why did the receptionist accept a cup of coffee from a supposed non-guest? I mean, if the thief WERE a guest, the receptionist could have easily identified him and in which room he was/had been staying, and also his passport details would be on file.

I smell something fishy here... but that's perhaps just me, always suspicious.

Kinda what I was thinking. I mean really, who gets a cup of coffee just randomly offered? "Here, drink this." So weird.

[madmitch 11,463]

oh well ... this happen everywhere in the world ..... but 3 millions bath in belonging 21 safe that makes 142,857 baht per safe .... pretty much a lot for such a small hotel .....with only one receptionist and no one around ..... strange to me .

I hadn't done the maths. It does seem a lot.

I also have no idea whether this would be covered by insurance

[pdrhan 5]

The logical explanation is that they were purchasing cheap pre-pay cell phones here and keeping their expensive phones from their perspective countries in the hotel safe deposit boxes.

Cell phones in North America typically do not allow interchangeable sim cards, they are dedicated to a specific provider.

Well , i hate when providers sim-lock their phones,they usually did that here in DK some years ago,now all phones bought here is sim-free and you can put in all providers simcards,very usefull when in Thailand,and i always keep the phone on me,not in a stupid locker.

[petedk 4,397]

I don't believe the story. Never been to an hotel yet where you've needed to drug the receptionists. They seem to be able to fall asleep on their own!!

I've never been to a hotel where the receptionist would accept a cup of coffee from a guest.

The whole story sounds wrong to me.

[notime 117]

There were 3 million THB in the guest deposit boxes and the hotel staff didn't steal it ?? And why would the guests keep that much in cash to start with? This story is full of holes.

[madmitch 11,463]

I don't believe the story. Never been to an hotel yet where you've needed to drug the receptionists. They seem to be able to fall asleep on their own!!

I've never been to a hotel where the receptionist would accept a cup of coffee from a guest.

The whole story sounds wrong to me.

Security guard, not receptionist.

I don't know the scenario but not difficult to imagine how the perpetrator could gain a guard's confidence, walk around the corner to the 7-Eleven and return with a couple of coffees.

But it could just as well have involved collusion with the guard. If I find out more I will post it.

[Udox 136]

Most modern CCTV systems are now computer based with images stored on Hard Drive. To take away the 'recording' from the CCTV - he would need to dis-assemble the computer case and remove the Hard Drive. Surely this would be in the back office somewhere?

It may be possible they had a pre-historic CCTV system that runs on VHS tapes - in which case he can remove the tape in 2 seconds !

Also usually safety boxes have a twin key system or if one key - only the user has the key and if they lose the key they change the lock. However we don't know what they use there and of course it is possible that they were forced, in which case they can't have been very strong 'safety boxes'.

Room safes are usually cheap and nasty things and I have been to hotels where the room safe is not even secured to anything solid - just sat inside the wardrobe/closet.

Any form of security is only as good as the weakest link. No point having CCTV if the recording hardware is not in a secure room somewhere!

no doubt more info will be forthcoming and it will be interesting.