A 31-year old Norwegian man and his Thai girlfriend complained, that they lost 30,000 baht in cash and a mobile phone due to four pickpockets stealing from them outside a shopping mall in Bangkok on 24 March 2024.
The couple didn’t feel the case was taken seriously by the Lumpini Police Station and the Immigration Bureau. According to the Thai media outlet Thaiger, a police officer allegedly told the Norwegian man, that the theft was his own fault and a result of bad karma in their past lives.
Afterwards, the couple contacted the non-profit organization Saimai Survive and reporters in order to get their story heard. The couple said, they are getting married in Thailand on 12 April, and they had therefore visited the CentralWorld shopping mall in order to try on wedding dresses and buy rings. CCTV revealed a group of four people had followed the couple since they entered, and that one of them pressed against her just moments before she noticed the theft.
The Thai women realized she had lost her iPhone 14 Pro Max and her wallet containing two credit cards and 30,000 baht in cash, as she tried to pay the bus fare home.