500k baht stolen from Singaporean family in Phuket villa

A Singaporean family’s vacation in Phuket was spoiled after their villa was burgled of over 485,000 baht worth of valuables, including two Louis Vuitton crossbody bags. The family of eight were visiting the beach destination from January 22 to 29 and were robbed at the tail end of their holiday.

They had moved into a private seven-bedroom villa they booked through AirBnB for the last three days of their trip. On the final day, the family discovered that two of their Louis Vuitton bags were missing. They had all been home at the suspected time of the theft.

One family member suspected the housekeepers of the villa to be the bandits. The villa came with daily housekeeping services and the cleaners would usually come between 10am and 4pm.

But, on the day of the incident, the female housekeeper appeared earlier than usual with another woman at around 9am. She explained that she needed extra help that day so she came early with an extra housekeeper.

Then both of them left the villa abruptly at 12pm. When the family contacted the villa’s owner, he was dismissive, saying this is common. When the bags turned up missing, the AirBnB host lacked empathy and was reluctant to even come to meet with them about the theft.

Then things got even stranger, as the two housekeepers returned to the villa later. Missing bags suddenly appeared in the outdoor space in the villa where they hadn’t been before. Cash and a Rolex Datejust watch worth close to half a million baht were gone from the bags though.

The family confronted the housekeepers who came across as unsurprised and calm while denying any wrongdoing. The family then contacted Thai police and filed a report at the police station.

The family described the police’s action – or lack thereof – saying that the housekeepers were not fingerprinted, nor were the bags and the crime scene was cleared up. There was no CCTV on site and the Singaporean family was shocked to learn that the same villa had been burgled before. When police requested fingerprints from the housekeepers, the owner failed to bring them to the station.

They lost a lot of valuables but were thankful that the family was unharmed at least. A video they posted about the incident when viral on TikTok as a cautionary tale against bringing valuables on holiday.