Quick action: Bangkok police recover 70,000 baht for Chinese man

Bangkok police officers demonstrated integrity by successfully recovering 70,000 baht in cash for a Chinese man who had lost his wallet on March 25, highlighting that not all Thai cops are corrupt.

The Chinese man, Zhang Wei, rushed to Huay Kwang Police Station after finding himself without a wallet at midnight on March 25. Zhang believed he might have left his wallet containing 70,000 baht in cash in the taxi.

Zhang explained that he and some friends took a yellow-green taxi from a restaurant to their condominium on Rama 9 Road but could not remember the registration numbers of the vehicle.

Officers from the Huay Kwang Police Station immediately checked security cameras along the route and managed to identify the taxi driver who served the Chinese victim and his friends.

The taxi driver was summoned to the police station but insisted that there was nothing left in his car. Officers were not convinced but rechecked the CCTV footage until they found that Zhang dropped his wallet on the road when getting out of the taxi.

The footage showed a Thai person finding the wallet and putting it in his pocket. Officers then contacted the person and asked him to return the wallet. The person reportedly intended to return the wallet to its rightful owner, leaving all the money untouched.

Zhang praised the speed of the police operation and thanked the officers for recovering the full amount of his money.

A similar successful operation by Thai police was reported earlier this month in Samut Prakarn province, near Bangkok. In this case, officers from the Bang Phli Police Station quickly arrested a Thai man who stole a handbag containing 25,000 baht in cash and other important documents from a Chinese woman.

The woman was very pleased with the quick operation and promised to share with her friends in China about her good experience in Thailand.

However, a Thai-Norwegian couple were not as lucky as the two Chinese tourists. The couple fell victim to pickpockets outside a shopping mall in Bangkok. They lost 30,000 baht in cash and a mobile phone to the gang but the police did not take their case seriously.

Officers from the Lumpini Police Station asked the couple to seek evidence of the theft by themselves, while an officer from the Immigration Bureau suggested they drop the case, saying it was the result of bad karma in their past lives.