martedì, settembre 30, 2008

Rawai ennesimo attacco, questa volta di giorno.

Non passa giorno che in Rawai non ci siano “suicidi strani”, rapine, furti in appartamento, accoltellamenti, risse, ecc...
Questi sono soltanto alcuni articoli riportati dal Phuket Gazette degli ultimi mesi:

Muggings in Rawai continue

Apirak angry, avers arrest over Aussie attack

Thai-Aussie couple survives fight with knife-wielding intruder

Soldiers of fortune found dead in Rawai

Body found off Koh Bon

Violent muggings return to Rawai

Body washes ashore in Rawai

American man commits suicide in Rawai

Naturalmente su un giornale locale in lingua inglese parlano solo di stranieri, quindi i crimini tra Thai non vengono menzionati e sono di gran lunga superiori ed efferati.
Ma cosa succede nel paese del sorriso?
Niente tutto come sempre.
Le baggianate dei Tour Operator sui sorrisi servono a vendere viaggi, di fatto le violenze ci sono sempre state in Thailandia come nel resto del mondo.
I soliti Forum sui viaggi, e le guide fanno solo demagogia pura, come pure qualche residente sull'isola che per paura di perdere i clienti cerca di nascondere tutto!
No non bisogna, a questi eventi bisogna dare rilevo, informare turisti e residenti stessi, con il tempo e la cooperazione con le forze dell'ordine sicuramente tutto si risolve.
Alcuni semplici suggerimenti:
  1. Mai abbassare la guardia!

  2. Evitare zone non turistiche di notte.

  3. Evitare di girare con il motorino da soli, accodatevi ad altri.

  4. Tenere borse ed oggetti di valore nascosti da sguardi indiscreti.

  5. Portare sempre un telefono con scheda sim Thai e numero della polizia locale

  6. Mai litigare con i Thai specialmente se ubriachi.

  7. Evitare Bar e Troiai simili, specialmente evitare di portarsi in camera chi non si conosce, se avete gli ormoni in ebollizione ci sono massaggi ed altri luoghi adatti per “sfogarsi” senza rischiare. (Riservato ai PlayBoy da strapazzo)

  8. Passaporto, carte di credito, documenti importanti sempre in cassaforte mai con voi

  9. Doppia attenzione a Rawai, Kata, strade per Patong.

  10. Nel caso notiate qualche movimento strano nella vostra zona non abbiate timore a fare un rapporto alla polizia.

Ultimo punto è importante, perchè la polizia Thai ci tiene che questi reati vengano repressi con forza. Ultimamente la polizia è sotto pressione, i media, e l'opinione della gente si fa sentire. Credetemi per i Thai non c'è nulla di peggio che perdere la faccia, quindi sono fiducioso che questi crimini diminuiranno con il tempo.
Phuket è un'isola che vive di turismo, e se la percezione del turista è quella di pericolo ci rimettiamo tutti e non solo chi lavora di turismo!

Segnate sul vostro cellulare questi numeri di telefono:

(se chiamate con la SIM ITA lo zero iniziale diventa 0066)

Muang District Police Station 076 212021 oppure 076 212115

Tourist Police 076 219878 or 1155

Chalong Police Station 076 381247 or 076 381974

Kamala Police Station 076 324310

Kathu Police Station 076 342719/21

Bangkok Phuket Hospital 076 254421/30

Ultimi articoli dal giornale locale:

Monday, September 29, 2008

Chalong cops nab snatch-and-run bandit

Ms Gopkul, who provided key information leading to Nop’s arrest, points to her assailant at Chalong Police Station.

KATA: With the wave of snatch-and-run robberies in Chalong Police District making national television news in recent days, police there have been under intense pressure to put the guilty behind bars.

Their first break came early yesterday morning with the arrest of a construction worker whose crime spree came to an abrupt halt at about 4 am when he crashed his rented motorbike at high speed into a parked pickup truck along a road in Kata.

As Ms Gopkul Se-jorhor was reporting a bag snatching to police at about 2 am yesterday, construction worker Manop “Nop” Tongboon, a native of Phichit province, was stashing the stolen handbag at his current home, a construction site near the Municipality Health Clinic in Kata. He then, according to Chalong police, went out in search of his next victim.

At about 4 am, Nop struck again, snatching the bag of Orchid Resort Hotel employee Oranee Chalermchol in similar fashion.

By that time the roads were being scoured by police who had gathered more clues from the company that had rented the motorbike to Nop.

Because he thought that someone was pursuing him, Nop, who told police that he had been high on alcohol and ya bah, sped up and then smashed into the pickup. Sub Lt Chatchawan Poonaruemit found him conscious but disoriented and took him to hospital before going to Chalong Police Station.

At the station, Ms Gopkul, an employee of the Moonlight Bar, said that “At around 2 am, he followed me past Club Med, then drove alongside and began pushing my bike with his foot. Then he ripped my handbag from my shoulder, breaking the strap before speeding away. There was 1,120 baht and a five-thousand-baht pair of sunglasses from my German boyfriend in my handbag.”

Nop said at the station that after a binge on alcohol and amphetamines, the sight of the key in the motorcycle’s ignition proved too tempting and he decided to drive around Kata and "have some more fun."

"This is the first time I have behaved like this in Phuket,” Nop averred.

When asked if he stole elsewhere, he replied, “In Bangkok I did the same thing. I cannot remember how many times, but by the time the Klong Luang Police caught me I had collected over 800,000 baht worth of stuff. They sent me to Tanyaburi Prison for three years, but I was let out after two years for good behavior.”

“In Bangkok, my arrest made the front pages of national newspapers. I do not wish to be famous again. Can we not make some deal?” he asked the police.

The Gazette asked Nop about the recent snatch-and-run thefts involving foreigners.

“I would never steal a bag from a foreigner as that is not good for the tourist industry and the police and courts would be very hard on me if I was caught stealing from a foreigner, so I only steal from Thai girls.

“My wife is eight months’ pregnant and I would love to see my child born. My last wife left me when I was caught bag snatching in Bangkok. I think my new wife will be more loyal to me though,” said Nop.

Ms Gopkul told Nop, “So you steal from girls do you? Be careful. One day it might not be a real girl, but a ladyboy who would probably beat you to death.”

When asked if there were more bag snatchers working in the Rawai/Kata area, the duty officer at Chalong police station told the Gazette that, “We are still actively trying to track down bag-snatchers. Usually they are hard to catch as most of them are from upcountry and only strike using rented motorbikes. They often leave the island after carrying out a crime.”

Monday, September 29, 2008

Muggings in Rawai continue

RAWAI: A year after the still-unsolved murder of Norwegian Simen Knudsen, violent robberies against foreigners on motorcycles continue in Rawai – with the the perpetrators now carrying out attacks in populated areas during broad daylight.

The latest victim is 38-year-old Sandra Ullrich, who suffered two fractures to the back of her skull when a pair of Thai men on a motorcycle tried to steal her shoulder bag about 1 pm on Thursday.

The attack occurred as Ms Ullrich, a four-year resident of Phuket, was riding her motorbike past the Banana Corner restaurant, at the corner of the three-way intersection of Saiyuan and Wiset Rd, in the heart of the Rawai-Nai Harn area.

The victim’s husband, Dutchman Hans Ullrich, told the Gazette shortly after the accident he was incensed at the response of the Chalong Police and that he was prepared to “take matters into my own hands” if they fail to take action to catch the perpetrators.

“I just went to the police station. If these guys don’t take care of it, I am going to absolutely freak out. I am going to sit in the bush myself with a couple of my friends and take care of it, because this is absolutely insane. They don’t do [anything] about it, ” said Mr Ullrich, a well-known member of the local dive industry.

“I know these types of things happen everywhere, but it just seems to be getting too much lately,” he said.

Mr Ullrich said he knew of three other similar attacks that have happened over the past six weeks.

Police sometimes patrol risk areas, such as the road from Rawai to the Kata Viewpoint, in the high season, but otherwise only after high-profile cases such as the Knudsen killing, he said.

Mrs Ullrich on Friday was still in the intensive care unit of Phuket International Hospital, where she had yet to regain her hearing, though she is expected to make a full recovery, he said.

The skull fractures, which occurred even though she was wearing a helmet, resulted from the awkward way she fell from the motorbike, he said.

When reporting the incident at Chalong Police Station, he was shown entries in the daily log of two similar attacks over the previous two days, he said.

The attack against his wife came little over a month after Mrs Ullrich’s best friend, American Sheila McCormick, was attacked in similar fashion on the viewpoint road from Rawai to Kata, not far from where Mr Knudsen was stabbed to death on September 24 last year.

In that attack, on August 15, Ms McCormick was riding along the viewpoint road at about 9:30 pm. As she reached the bottom of the hill near the elephant camp, she passed two men on a single motorbike who appeared to be drunk, she told the Gazette.

“Then I knew I was being followed, so I put some distance on them,” she said.

Suddenly they sped up and the man on the back of the bike reached out to grab her bag, but the pair lost control and crashed into the guardrail at the bottom of the hill going about 100 kilometers per hour, she said.

“They didn’t get my bag. They just got really hurt,” she said.

But Ms McCormick also crashed, suffering two broken ribs, bad abrasions and a sprained ankle that left her unable to walk for a week, she said.

“The area has a reputation for this kind of thing happening, but the reputation is for attacks that happen at one o’clock in the morning against people who are alone, possibly drunk… When I went to the police station, I found out that they had attacked another foreign woman on the same hill a few hours earlier, at about 7 pm,” said Ms McCormick.

She added that she got a very good look at her attackers and was told by police that her description of the two men matched that of two men who had carried out the attack two hours earlier.

A simple patrol dispatched to the scene of the first attack could have scared off her assailants and prevented the attack against her, she said.

Chalong Police did not record a police report in the case of her attack, even though she talked to them three times, she said.

“That was the whole point. They didn’t do anything for me and they didn’t do anything for [Sandy],” Ms McCormick said.

“I really love this place and I really felt safe, even as a woman. So I am really surprised about all the things going on,” she said.


Phuket, Thailand
11:06 local time (GMT +7)
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