Money Snatch in Sunee Plaza

[Gaybutton]

This is probably an isolated incident, but it does show that you have to be vigilant at all times when your money is exposed. The following appears in PATTAYA ONE:

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Two Young Boys Arrested Following Street Theft in Soi Sunee Plaza, South Pattaya

 

Pattaya, September 7 [PATTAYA ONE NEWS]

 

In the early hours of Saturday Morning, Police were made aware of a robbery involving a Belgium Tourist; Mr. Albert Vanhove aged 56 in Soi Sunee Plaza, South Pattaya. The victim was preparing to pay a Bar Bill and had the money in his hand when two young boys approached him and snatched the money from Mr. Vanhove.

 

Descriptions of the two boys were circulated amongst Patrolling Police Officers and thanks to the Pattaya SWAT Team who were close-by the two boys aged only 14 and 15 were arrested in a disused building near Soi Sunee Plaza. 1,260 Baht in cash was recovered and the two boys were taken to Pattaya Police Station for processing.

[Guest joseph44]

You should be careful with everything valuable at any place.

 

Never put your phone, wallet, keys or whatever on the table your sitting at.

Even fags aren't safe.

 

Grabbing someone's money out of his hands is far more brutal of course.

[Guest HeyGay]

Yes Albert just told me, in all the years he ran the most popular "Little Planet Restaurant" in Soi Day and Night, he had no problems, now this.

 

It could happen to any one opportune Robbery, especially in this very low season

[Guest Astrrro]

Pattaya SWAT Team

 

1,260 Baht in cash was recovered

 

Maybe they should have been at Suvarnaphumi or the ASEAN conference. B)

 

Nontheless, a job well done.

[Gaybutton]

Yes Albert just told me, in all the years he ran the most popular "Little Planet Restaurant" in Soi Day and Night, he had no problems, now this.

You spoke with him? I had no idea this is the same man who owns Little Planet. I would be very interested if you can post what he had to say about the incident. I would think he would have a much more detailed version of what took place than the article has.

[Guest HeyGay]

You spoke with him? I had no idea this is the same man who owns Little Planet. I would be very interested if you can post what he had to say about the incident. I would think he would have a much more detailed version of what took place than the article has.

\

Yes GB Albert use to be the previous long time owner of the Little Planet Restaurant, and he was an Engineer he said he use to have diner parties at his home, he got the recipes from the Internet and did the same with Little Planet, he also worked with the Customs department at the Airport, in Belgium he told me. He had the low down on a few characters walking around Sunee and was very interesting when sober.

 

He was sitting in the My Mic Bar or was it the Sky Bar we were taking about both, Sunee Plaza late in the evening/early morning, just paid his bill the Mamasan brought his change on a plate and put it on the table, he went to pick it up, these 2 young sewer Rat Boys, were walking by the open Bar, looked in, grabbed the money so quick the Mamasan gave chase and was talking to police, while he was running, amazingly was able to follow them to a disused building, at the back of Sunee and the police came screeching up the road, in what seemed to be minutes, they were pointed out and trapped.

 

It was all over in minutes, so he was very lucky. I have now looked at the article you can see his Picture, remember him now below. He tells me he got all his money back, so the Pattaya police are very much on the ball. It turns out they had only just be released the boys from the Drug rehabilitation center in Sattahip that day.

 

I hope this satisfies your lust for more and more Naughty Information, GB you lusty old thing.

[Guest Astrrro]

A plate of change usually has less than 1000 baht so it's unlikely that they stole the entire 1260 that was recovered by the SWAT team from Albert.

[Guest taylorsquare]

And what about the real victims of this?

The poor children who needed the money to eat?

[Guest lester1]

Your knowledge is greater than ours. There is a small chance that the boys were poor and deperately needed money for food. On the other hand they may have just decided to steal the money that was handed to them on a plate!!

What most impressed me is that the people involved actually found a patrolling policeman, and that a SWAT team (presumably one of those with body armour, automatic weopens and tasers that work against organised crime and earn part time money starring in TV cop shows) then pitched up to stake out the derelict building and with much walky talky-ing, swept through the area and arrested two kids with change from a day/night bar bill. Of course, by swat team they may have meant two cops in a pick up.

[Gaybutton]

GB you lusty old thing.

Whaddya mean, old?

 

And what about the real victims of this?The poor children who needed the money to eat?

What about them? I have no sympathy for them. How can you possibly know they needed the money to eat?

 

I'm sorry for them if they were really hungry, but it's rare for any of these boys to go hungry, even when they're flat broke. It's much more likely they simply saw what they thought to be an easy target and went for it. I believe if anything, they weren't going to buy food. They were going to buy ya ba.

 

But even if they were hungry and wanted to buy food with the money, what gives them the right to just help themselves and steal someone else's money? I'd bet that if a boy or two came up to a farang, said they have no money for food, and would the farang please buy something for them to eat, few people would say no. I wouldn't hand over money, but I would certainly at least take them to one of the food carts and pay for whatever they wanted to eat.

 

To my mind, there is only one "real victim" here . . . the man whose money was stolen.

[Guest luvthai]

I thought the push was on to take the street kids off the street? Why were they released from a drug rehab facility that day to be released back to the streets? Shouldn't they have been sent to a safe place to get schooling and rehab or sent to the parents to be held responsible?

I'm sure the boys were hungry and had no place to stay so what options do the kids really have? There will alwys be a problem until parents are held accountable and there is compulsory schooling.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

"IF" the poor hungry victims were, in fact, hungry with no place to stay, all they would have to do is present themselves to a wat and the monks would feed them and give them a place to stay in exchange for some work for the monks.

[Gaybutton]

I'm sure the boys were hungry and had no place to stay

What on earth makes you sure of that? Nothing personal here, but your post is very naive. You're talking about streetwise boys who know all the ropes and all the tricks of the trade. You can be certain the the boys had food and a place to stay. Both.

 

Sent to rehab? Thailand does have some programs for that. Many of these boys come out of those programs in worse shape than they were in when they got there. Apparently that was the case with these two. If HeyGay's information is correct, they were released, and in the same day where did they go? Sunee Plaza. And what did they do once they got there? Tried to rob somebody. Apparently whatever the rehab program was supposed to accomplish didn't exactly overwhelmingly succeed.

 

Released to the parents? It's more likely the parents are the ones who sent them out into the streets in the first place.

 

Unfortunately, with all the great things about Thailand, there is also a brutal reality that the poor and uneducated are mainly on their own and very little is done or even available to help them. Thailand is modernizing, but when it comes to those kinds of things, Thailand is still very much in the Dark Ages.

[Guest ezfonzata]

I thought the push was on to take the street kids off the street? Why were they released from a drug rehab facility that day to be released back to the streets? Shouldn't they have been sent to a safe place to get schooling and rehab or sent to the parents to be held responsible?

 

I'm sure the boys were hungry and had no place to stay so what options do the kids really have? There will alwys be a problem until parents are held accountable and there is compulsory schooling.

 

This is Thailand, not Switzerland. The social programs here are a joke, and are run by corrupt officials that skim a large portion of money for themselves. They don't care about these kids - which is why they release them and let the whole thing repeat again and again. If the powers that be really cared about these kids' welfare, they would have decent programs for them to get off drugs and back with their families (assuming they have any relatives left). Most these kids are orphans or runaways from abusive families, so Sunee is the best option for them to survive - it's a sad fact, but a fact none the less.

 

Interestingly, this episode is a direct offshoot of recent crackdowns on foreigners who prefer these aged boys. There is much more petty crime these days from these kids causing havoc around the Corner Bar since these crackdowns. It was a trade-off; we reduced the number of pedos in Sunee, but increased the desperation of these kids who had become accustomed to a more wealthy lifestyle having such people as customers.

 

Interesting that when you get rid of one problem, another arises in its place.

[Guest fountainhall]

Interesting that when you get rid of one problem, another arises in its place

 

Isn't this virtually one of Newton's laws: that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction?

[Guest njjim]

I know I will probably take a lot of heat for this, but I think it needs to be said.

 

It is very difficult not to feel sorry for these kids - they are children in a difficult situation - but if you live in Sunee and see them on a regular basis, you will also soon realize they are drug users, hustlers, thieves - willing to do anything for the money they need.

 

In the past the "nice farang" who bought them food one day; the next day has had to deal with threats of going to the police to report he had sex with these boys.

 

I think the best advice is to avoid any contact with the boys. They say hello for the same reason the ladies on the beach walk do -money. It only sets you up as a potential victim. Even buying them food, which may ease your guilt - only frees up for drugs whatever money they may already have of can hustle or steal the rest of the day.

 

It is sad - drugs, homelessness, underage sex - very sad; but not problems which are easily solved even by highly trained professionals, and certainly not by a well meaning farang with little or no knowledge of the system here.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

There are choices in life. These boys do have a choice. If they have no education or money and want to be good decent members of society, thieving and drugs are not the choices to make. They can go to a temple and become a novice until they are 20 years old, and then they may have learned other ways to be productive instead of destructive. If not, they can become a monk. It is a sad situation when one is born into poverty, but there are ways go rise above it, not always easy, but no one ever said life was guaranteed to be easy.

[Guest Astrrro]

 

 

In the past the "nice farang" who bought them food one day; the next day has had to deal with threats of going to the police to report he had sex with these boys.

 

I think the best advice is to avoid any contact with the boys.

 

I agree 100%.

 

Best to have zero contact with the street urchins.

[Guest fountainhall]

These boys do have a choice. If they have no education or money and want to be good decent members of society, thieving and drugs are not the choices to make

 

An admirable sentiment, but I fear one that is basically unrealistic with the depth of poverty in much of rural Thailand. Given the choice, I am sure many (most?) of these boys would always opt for money over education. Their needs are now. As they see it, education will only help them a decade or more later in life. And I wonder how many even stop to consider the possibility of becoming good decent members of a society that has, in their eyes, abandoned them to the gutter. Besides, if all opted to enter a temple, how could the temples cope?

 

As agreed by other posters, these boys are in a desperately sad, no-win situation. I have no answers. I, too, would probably "pass by on the other side".

[Guest lvdkeyes]

I am not naive enough to think that all the poor boys would enter temples. My point is that they do have choices even though they probably wouldn't stop to consider them. That doesn't negate the fact that choices exist. Apart from entering a temple there are other choices, besides thievery and drugs, available; farming, construction and the like. Also, I am sure not all bar boys are into drugs and stealing. I feel sad that some boys make such bad choices, but if they make their beds, they must lie in them.

[Guest]

NEVER giving money to beggars is the policy I have ALWAYS followed.

[Gaybutton]

NEVER giving money to beggars is the policy I have ALWAYS followed.

Me too, especially once it became well known that most, perhaps all, of these beggars are mafia controlled. Many are brought in from other countries, particularly Cambodia. They work all day and get to keep 100 baht for themselves. Anything beyond that goes right into the hands of the mafia. Quite often when you see women beggars with babies, or grandmothers with babies, the babies are not even their own. Lord-only-knows where the babies came from.

 

In any case I'm not going to support that and they won't get a single baht from me. To my mind the only way to put a stop to it, since most of the time the police seem to look the other way, is to make it worthless for the mafia to send out these beggars. If nobody gives them anything, then it will stop.

 

I don't think it's mean or callous to refuse these beggars when they're operating illegally in the first place and they don't even get to keep any of the money beyond a pittance, just enough or them to eat and that's about it.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

I am on that train.

[Guest fountainhall]

I am now. A couple of years ago I was crossing the bridge between Central World and Gaysorn Plaza when I saw a guy with no arms. I popped 10 Baht into his cup. My Thai friend asked why I had been so stupid. "Because I am genuinely sorry for him," I replied. To which my friend asked me to look more closely at the beggar. His arms were tied up and carefully hidden in the back of his shirt. Yeah, I know! There's one born every minute!

[Gaybutton]

His arms were tied up and carefully hidden in the back of his shirt. Yeah, I know! There's one born every minute!

I'm not surprised. When I was a teenager my brother and I encountered a blind violin-playing beggar. We put some money into his cup. Several months later we encountered him again. This time he was deaf . . .