the theif that got away

Posted by Nicky on July 17, 2009 · 1 Comment 

We managed to officially shut down a hotel/hostel for a day!!! Note: Don’t mess with me. The crazy maid thought she could slyly steal 100 $$ from my suitcase, stashed in the bottom compartment– she thought she could simply take it and get away with it…? Well, in the end I probably paid for her and her friends to get a new car and hair style, and nails done ($100 is a months wage in Thailand!) but we didn’t go down without a battle!

Things are so backwards here. We told the manager that money had been stolen, keeping in mind there was only one other person who had been in our room. One maid who worked there. She had been oh, so thoughtfully and even took clothes out of our suitcases to fold them… or took clothes out to go through all the pockets looking for goodies? You be the judge. The manager has a little smirk mixed with a ‘oh no’ what terrible news, how could that have happened look. The manager tells us the MAID WILL DRIVE ME ON THE BACK OF HER MOTORBIKE TO THE TOURIST POLICE OFFICE. I was holding on to the woman who had just gone through all our belongings and stole our money, great experience. She waltzes in the fake police station, where she has been a dozen times with every guest she has taken down here before. She is as cool as a cucumber. And rightly so, since as soon as we walk in she tells the police woman, in Thai, what seems to be the problem. I try to speak up, but get talked over, ignored, pushed to the side. I sign some lame form and that’s it. Investigation complete. You lose, maid wins. No questions.

After filing a report and seeing the ‘police’ in Thailand do nothing, we took matters into my our own hands. I made a sign “Don’t Stay here they STEAL!” I sat out front that damn little place and turned everyone away that came by for 4 hours, and then we preceded to spread word like a wild fire through the guest house and got all the guests there to checkout & the management went MAD. Mad isn’t even the right word, the manager went ballistic. Mental. Straight jacket needed asap. Veins are ready to pop.

We got the iron curtain doors slammed down on the place. She shut down for the day because of no guests, our bags literally thrown out in the street, we got the boot. The manager had the nerve to threaten to call the REAL cops. Which we simply replied too,”GOOD, get the police here maybe they can get her to give us back our money!”

The maid who stole the money was standing there LAUGHING at us, laughing. She had the money, and we knew it, and she knew it, and the so-called manager knew it, but it didn’t matter. We even offered to give her 30 if she gave us 70. What a joke, bargaining for our own money.

Upon all the stir and chaos, 2 other guests discovered over $300 missing from their wallets.  Nothing happened, even though 4 people stood there with empty wallets. The barman next door told us after that it is a scheme they play on most guests and it always ends the same way.

Definitely one to remember- the shutting down of a hotel/hostel for one day while  being called every curse word in Thai, the manager mad at me for her maid stealing my money?

Only in Thailand.

–Nicky-

Filed under South East Asia, Thailand · Tagged with Krabi, Thailand, theif