Phuket motorcycle taxi rider steals dropped cash of foreign couple
Dashcam footage captured a Thai motorcycle taxi rider stealing cash that was accidentally dropped by a foreign couple in Phuket yesterday, May 14.
Phuket Times shared the dashcam video on its Facebook page today, May 15, with a caption condemning the rider’s behaviour. An excerpt from the caption read…
“Can’t stand this! It tarnishes Phuket’s image! This Thai taxi rider picked up money dropped by foreign tourists and kept it in his shirt pocket at 5pm on May 14 on a road in the Patong area.”
The video showed banknotes falling onto the road, prompting several motorists to stop. The owners of the cash were identified as a foreign couple who pulled over ahead to retrieve their money.
A Thai pedestrian and a convenience store worker were seen helping to collect the banknotes and returning them to the foreign woman. However, the motorcycle taxi rider did not do the same.
The rider parked nearby. A woman, believed to be his girlfriend, got off the motorcycle, picked up some of the banknotes, and handed them to him. The rider also bent down to pick up cash himself, then swiftly placed it into his shirt pocket, despite the foreign woman standing in front of him collecting her money.
A foreign man appeared to witness the act and confronted the rider, seemingly complaining about the theft. The rider nodded repeatedly but did not return the money, and instead sped away from the scene.
Phuket Times reported that while the amount of money taken was not large, the rider’s actions caused serious damage to Phuket’s image.
In the comments section, a Thai man shared a similar experience. He recounted dropping his wallet while riding a motorcycle, only for a taxi rider behind him to pick it up and fail to return it. He was unaware he had lost the wallet, but a postal worker saw it happen.
The witness reportedly chased the taxi rider down and demanded the wallet back. Although the rider initially refused to return it, he eventually relented. The man said he nearly lost 20,000 baht in cash, and the incident changed his view of taxi riders.
Many netizens condemned the motorcycle taxi rider and the woman for their wrongdoing, calling on local police to take the case seriously and issue legal punishment to prevent such incidents from recurring.
Latest Thailand News
Follow The Thaiger on Google News:
