PHUKET: Phuket Police are on the lookout for three men, all thought to be from the Middle East, who are suspected of doping a front desk officer at a resort near Karon Beach and robbing the resort’s guest safe boxes of about 3 million baht in valuables. The front desk officer at Karon Place Hotel who was allegedly drugged by the gang told the Phuket Gazette that the three foreigners had visited him sometime after midnight on the two nights preceding the robbery
PHUKET: Police yesterday morning confirmed that the body of 26-year-old Dutch tourist Stephan Buczynski had been sent to Bangkok for an autopsy.
PHUKET: As many of you know, I am in the process of moving. Sometime in the next month or so, I’ll be moving from a Patong townhouse – where I’ve lived for the past 12 years – to a modest housing development in Kathu, near Loch Palm Golf Course
British tourist Iain Barnes arrived in Phuket to begin his dream of traveling to Asia while in his twenties – he turns 30 on January 19.
PHUKET: A monk chose to be defrocked at the main temple in Phuket Town, Wat Wichit Sangkharam (map here), this afternoon after being caught stealing a temple donation “money tree” and running off with 1,000 baht in cash. Wichit Police were alerted to the theft at 11:30am after local residents near Wat Nakaram (map
PHUKET: A spat between “regular” taxi drivers and a metered taxi driver broke out in Patong on December 26, highlighting the ongoing tensions between the two groups. The Patong taxi drivers accused the metered taxi driver of trying to pick up a fare from the street while on “their turf”, when all he allegedly did was provide directions to a lost tourist
PHUKET: The recent police-ordered closure of tour counters run by Russian nationals in Kata-Karon is just the latest in a long series of protest-related events in Phuket that undermine the rule of law by rewarding law-breakers and punishing those who play by the rules. The closure of the counters followed a blockade of the Karon beachfront by members of a so-called taxi “co-operative”, one whose self-proclaimed right to extort visiting tourists through collusion tactics is apparently deemed more important by police than the right of law-abiding citizens to drive on Patak Road. The Kata-Karon co-op members are, of course, no strangers to protest tactics.
PHUKET: A member the Thai Royal Navy was found hanged in his Phuket garage, just days after he discovered his girlfriend was having an affair.
PHUKET: Phuket Police are on the lookout for a somtam (spicy Thai salad) vendor following a local building supplies shop staffer being shot in the head at point-blank range with a homemade zip gun south of Phuket Town last night.