Video: Aussie pensioner sets fire to his house in Surat after row with his Thai girlfriend

[Get Real]

Whatever the problem is, it can never be justified to burn up things inside or your house.
Especially not when renting it too. This man clearly needs a doctor.

Just not another day in paradise. The garden of Eden has seen the invasion of dragons.

[zorro1]

The "root" of the problem was that she apparently got ahold of his ATM card and emptied almost 500,000 baht from his account.
 
(And yes, it's not that hard for someone to do as I found out after my dad's girlfriend had been draining his account of 20,000 a day until he died and then, even though I had his bank book, ATM card and passport, was able to get a new bank book and continue draining his account for 2 weeks days after he died and even scooped a small interest payment that came in 6 weeks later ! I was out of the country working and didn't find out until I got back and by then she was long gone of course. When I asked at the bank how it was possible for her to do this all I got was a shrug and "not my problem" kind of look.)

It's easy to do. I had my GF call my bank several times because it was just easier her speaking thai and was given sensitive information without me being on the phone

[Wake Up]

I own property so I would not be happy if the tenant did this. But I also have empathy for this man. It sounds like someone he cared about or loved stole from him. That is painful. If this was a large portion of his wealth then more pain. 

 

Sometimes stress is hard to handle especially family relationship stress and you don't care what happens to you anymore. You think your world has collapsed around you. 

 

I hope this guy recovers and pays for the damage and gets some relief from the stress he is under. 

[YeahSiam]

21 minutes ago, bkk75 said:

Is he a TVF member?

Yes

I think his forum ID could be marko kok prong

 

Seriously though, I'd lay any money that the love oaf in the story has been on TV forums in the past extolling the virtues of paid companionship and how it cuts through "all the bull" that comes with relationships based on - you know - actually liking each other.

[zorro1]

500k are hardly life savings, when you either need 800k for a "retirement visa" or 400k for a "marriage visa".
 
To be the devil's advocate, if someone threatens to kill my son, taking his money would be the least I would do to him.
 
Aussie victim?..maybe, maybe not

That's 500 short times he will never have

[pigeonjake]

2 sons move in and it all starts to go wrong,

how many times have we read this,,?

more so if they are teenagers and just want to lay about watching tv till night time then off they go,

good luck to the old guy anyway hope all works out for him

[ezrider62]

2 hours ago, The Old Bull said:

A fellow in Pac Chong told me he had no friends but could have lots if he drank beer.

Hey, I can do that! Only once a week though I'm a bit of a light weight.

[hobobo]

5 hours ago, manarak said:

second thought... I'm surprised this didn't take place in Pattaya.

There's more entertainment in Pattaya already, he just wanted to level the score a bit...

[elgordo38]

5 hours ago, z42 said:

It's frustrating that the story posted seems to completely gloss over the allegation that either the girlfriend (or someone close to her) basically stole 480,000 baht of this guy's money.
I think it is too hard to pre judge this guy too much. Yeah sure he looks a complete fool on the surface, but when you look a little closer it could be that his life savings, or at least a good chunk thereof has been stolen from him. Now there is almost no recourse for him, he is too old to work & earn it back, and actually retrieving the money through the courts I'd guess would be an equally costly, stressful, and arduous venture for a man of his age, and knowing how the justice system operates here, a complete gamble at best.

I don't for a second condone arson or property destruction. But I can feel a degree of sympathy for a man who probably now feels he is at rock bottom. Some of the comments on the video TV had of this incident on their facebook page were disgusting. Kicking a man when he's down is as immoral as it gets imo. Remember, this could very well happen to any of us living here, and while the going is good it is very easy to lose sight of that fact, and be blinded by it.

I concur and on top of this 2 children move in with ATM eyes and the problem goes pear shaped. I have seen this first hand where children come knocking on the door and say "Your my daddy and I and my FRIEND want to stay with you" grown kids of working age. Your the "host"

[Destiny1990]

I expect some revenge fingerpointing from the thais at the police station?

[Bluespunk]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

What's the basis for the allegation that the GF stole the guy's money?

 

I saw one early poster allege that. But I didn't see any source or attribution for that claim.

Apparently he's shouting the allegations on the video. 

 

I haven't  watched it though, so I could be wrong. 

[Cats4ever]

Another quality expat.

[spidermike007]

You see this kind of craziness quite often here. One wonders why he couldn't just kick here out, and be done with her, once he found out she was stealing from him. And why did it take so long to find out? Most account are protected by daily limits. Burning ones own house is a fairly extreme reaction. Is that the only way he had to get her out of the house? Bizarre story. My heart goes out to this chap. 

[sanemax]

34 minutes ago, IMA_FARANG said:

There is a thing no one is talking about on this subject.

His wife is 50 years old and probably well into Menopause.

It is entirely possible her interest in sex with him is past.

And on the other hand his interest in sex may still be strong.

I don't know that for sure, but it is entirely possible.

Such things do happen as you age.

 

 

No one is talking about that subject, sex , because no one is interested in their sex life or her menopausal situation .

    There are other things in life apart from sex, you know ?

[YeahSiam]

6 minutes ago, pigeonjake said:

2 sons move in and it all starts to go wrong,

how many times have we read this,,?

more so if they are teenagers and just want to lay about watching tv till night time then off they go,

good luck to the old guy anyway hope all works out for him

Yeah guess he didn't know she had teenage boys from a previous relationship.

 Another example of astute partner selection from the Thailand Pensioners' League

[YeahSiam]

2 minutes ago, Cats4ever said:

Another quality expat.

No, not "expat"

 

"Economic migrant" or "Economic refugee"

[seahorse]

4 hours ago, Raymonddiaz said:

Stop your mouth OK? ( Thailish) This is Thailand we don't care if she stole 500.000 Baht from you. The guy is depressed and he needs help. Losing all your savings when you are already old is very difficult. Foreigners need to be careful . Many Thai women are just after Farangs money not because they are handsome.Wake up guys......I feel sorry for this old man....

No non-Thai women after men's money, then?

[sanemax]

1 minute ago, Destiny1990 said:

I expect some revenge fingerpointing from the thais at the police station?

Yeah yeah , yeah "Fingerpointing , Brown envelopes, 500 Baht fine, Two weeks in a temple"

   A thread wouldnt be complete without those usual comments !!!!!!!

[elgordo38]

4 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

You see this kind of craziness quite often here. One wonders why he couldn't just kick here out, and be done with her, once he found out she was stealing from him. And why did it take so long to find out? Most account are protected by daily limits. Burning ones own house is a fairly extreme reaction. Is that the only way he had to get her out of the house? Bizarre story. My heart goes out to this chap. 

There is way more to this story than what we are  hearing. 

[Bluespunk]

8 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

You see this kind of craziness quite often here. One wonders why he couldn't just kick here out, and be done with her, once he found out she was stealing from him. And why did it take so long to find out? Most account are protected by daily limits. Burning ones own house is a fairly extreme reaction. Is that the only way he had to get her out of the house? Bizarre story. My heart goes out to this chap. 

I'd have had second thoughts about her after one of her ex-boyfriends tried to have me killed. 

 

From 2015

 

"Police said the attack was motivated by a romantic conflict. Mr Jeeradet, they said, had been in a relationship earlier with the Thai woman, identified only as Juthamas, who now lived with Mr Woodward.

They allege that the man hired Mr Wanchai and Mr Sumet to kill the Australian as he believed the woman might then return to him."

[Kerryd]

1 hour ago, Tanlic said:

Sorry for your loss but unless it was in joint names there no way on this earth would any bank allow her to withdraw using a bank book. Even If he had a will that would take ages before the bank would release money to her.

 Let's say you are right why didn't she then not take the lot in one hit? nothing stopping her from doing that.

I would reckon she had a ATM card and a pin number your late Farther gave her because he wanted her to be ok should anything happen to him. Hence the 20k per day

 

 

Actually, I KNOW exactly how it happened.

The bank(s) will allow someone to make withdrawals on behalf of someone else but that person needs the bank book of the account holder as well as a signed photocopy of their passport. The bank is then supposed to phone the account holder to verify the payment before processing it. Apparently they set a limit of 20,000 baht per day if withdrawing cash in this manner.

 

I KNOW because one day (a couple weeks before he died) dear old dad called me with a problem. His teerak had gone to the bank to make a withdrawal and they turned it down. Dad was sure he still had money in the bank. I took his bankbook and went to the branch. Turns out that his teerak had panicked when she realized I was back on holiday and tried to clean out his account in one shot (just over 400,000 remaining at the time), that's why the bank turned her down and called dad. That's when I found out she'd been taking 20,000 a day out of his account everyday for over 2 weeks already. I told dad what she'd been doing and he said she told him it was for medicine. I said it was BS and kept his bankbook but a couple days later he asked me to give it back and sure enough, she was straight back to taking 20k a day out of his account.

 

I had barely a week from the time he died until I had to head back to work. I took his bank book, ATM card and passport, thinking that would keep her from taking anymore from his account.Little did I know that she would be able to simply get a new bankbook (somehow) and must have had a stack of photocopies of his passport. When I returned on my next holiday, I went to check his account and the bankbook I had wasn't valid. The branch said it had been cancelled and a new one issued. I asked how that was possible as the account holder was dead and of course, no one knew. By then it had been over 3 months and there was virtually no chance of ever recovering the money. I wrote it off to my own stupidity for not going to the bank and having his accounts frozen after he died, as I had assumed she wouldn't be able to take anymore without the book and passport. That's what happens when you make assumptions instead of actually knowing.

 

As for the guy in the OP, who knows ? He may have had a joint account or she may have had his ATM (PIN) number. Wouldn't surprise me as I've seen old gits do that before. Give their ATM card to their teerak to go get money and beer from the local 7-11 (they probably didn't have a lot in their account anyways).

Maybe he went to get some money or pay a bill one day and discovered his account was empty. That'd set most people off, especially if they realized it was their teerak/wife that had done it and left them with nothing. Even if you are getting pensions from home, that's a whack of cash to suddenly not have anymore, whether you're 45 or 65. Especially as now you are probably looking at having to move elsewhere and start over again. Not sure what he was hoping to accomplish by burning some furniture but people often get into a state of mind (especially if drunk, or angry, or both) and do things that seem mighty odd to everyone else.

 

[connda]

Time to get some professional help.

[Destiny1990]

22 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Yeah yeah , yeah "Fingerpointing , Brown envelopes, 500 Baht fine, Two weeks in a temple"

   A thread wouldnt be complete without those usual comments !!!!!!!

Yes that is what will happen.

the crazy farang was fingerpointing to the thais.and now once at the police station where he will be charged for making a fire in some else his house the thai owner of the house and others will do a revenge fingerpointing to him.

now what your problem of my speculation?

[davo2003]

1 hour ago, robblok said:

Not what I have seen, i seen quite a few Thai girls even taking care of their bf (financially). This happens too, but usually they are in the same age group. Now love is a business if the girl is far more pretty than what a guy normally could get. Look at lottery winners and so on with stunning gf's. Happens in the west too just takes more money. You just have to ask yourself.. am I in the same leage as this girl or not. Does she like me because of me or my money. Its not that hard to find out.. if your using money to get her and she never pays a thing herself and is totally dependent on you.. these are all signs. 

 

I refuse to accept that all Thai woman are after money. I divorced my ex (still friends) I kept the house and car.. she only wanted the money she put in the relation (and I gave her that and a bit more because she was so considerate). She could have been bad and fleeced me. There certainly is love.. but if your thinking with your c..k and not your brains your easy to fool

Totally agree.

[sanemax]

3 minutes ago, Destiny1990 said:

Yes that is what will happen.

the crazy farang was fingerpointing to the thais.and now once at the police station where he will be charged for making a fire in some else his house the thai owner of the house and others will do a revenge fingerpointing to him.

now what your problem of my speculation?

I just find it quite monotonous people keep saying the same thing in every thread, "Oh look, hes finger pointing" Yes, I know, I can see it too

[Cyclone88]

4 hours ago, OmegaRacer said:

500k are hardly life savings, when you either need 800k for a "retirement visa" or 400k for a "marriage visa".

 

To be the devil's advocate, if someone threatens to kill my son, taking his money would be the least I would do to him.

 

Aussie victim?..maybe, maybe not

Could well be his life savings....

He could use his pension income for his visa. 

Who is anyone to judge?

[IAMHERE]

Hope things get better for this man, I like Austrians.

[The Dark Lord]

46 minutes ago, sanemax said:

No one is talking about that subject, sex , because no one is interested in their sex life or her menopausal situation .

    There are other things in life apart from sex, you know ?

No offence Sanemax but from your comments it appears you have not had the pleasure of trying to nurse a thai woman through menopause.

 

trust me I did and it was awful.

 

i was lucky in that most of the time it was in the UK because had it been here I would likely be in the monkey house with all sorts of false allegations. Oh yes the hormone induced insanity ( as described by a leading female doctor in Thailand)  knows no boundaries and being exposed to the inane behaviour of women on Ch3 etc out here seems to fuel even wilder behaviour.

 

even the suggestion to visit a doctor sparked off an insane rage the likes of which I had never seen before.

 

fortunately mine finally got treatment but even now four years into the treatment we see occasional flashes of the insanity.

 

what do you do? Walk away and leave someone you genuinely care for to the clutches of the thai mental health system? 

 

I dont have the answer, I really wish I did but walking away and leaving it behind goes against what you got married for   ".... richer or poorer, in sickness and in health...." 

 

i would like to think think that if the tables were turned ............... but then again. 

 

This guys actions were probably fuelled by alcohol and the attempt on his life and the theft of his money ( been there done it got the video read the book) and at some point even the most gentle of us will blow. 

 

Not condoning and not criticising , just saying.

[sanemax]

Maybe the menopause is natures way of telling males to go and find a younger woman 

[FitnessHealthTravel]

Edward Woodward is going to get some wood now!