A warning to all “farang” men, keep your zip closed and your credit card in your own safe.
Meet the Norwegian man Steinar Naglestad, a savior in real life. And meet Stig, whom he picked up and set on a better course in life.
Steinar was born in Norway, not far from Kristiansand in the south of Norway.
For many years, Steinar was an officer in the Norwegian military and posted on the border to Russia. After the military years, he moved on to the capital Oslo. Here he became part of the “SWAT team” a special, highly trained police force.
After five years with the police, he got headhunted by an insurance company and saw their offers as a new challenge. Here he worked for five years and then moved on to a completely other world.
Steinar bought an old farm and converted it into a children’s home. Here he had a school built and he was an active working and dedicated owner and leader. He ran the children’s home for 15 years, but then he was exhausted and sold it.
He was completely depleted of energy and just had the wish to escape.
He decided to jump on a plane to Brazil. In Rio de Janeiro he invested in apartments that he rented out, but he was well aware of the big violence that was around him and as he never has been a drinker or fighter, he did not find himself in the right country.
As Steinar hated the winters, he began to look for another warm country and his eyes fell on Thailand, the Land of Smiles. We are talking year 2010.
In the beginning, Steinar traveled between Thailand and Norway. He says that he feels very well in Thailand, he is a kind of clean-living person, not drinking any alcohol, but spends lots of time with training. You can easily see that from his physical appearance, he’s slim, tall and well trained.
One day, when Steinar was sitting at a coffee shop, he was joined by a Thai man. They found each other sympathetic and became good friends. This Thai man was educated in San Francisco and had a degree in economics. Despite a good education and having a rich family, one aunt living in San Francisco, he struggled with severe mental problems.
Steinar and his friend saw each other for 8 years regularly, but one day, the Thai man said to Steiner; “You will not be seeing me anymore, this is the last time.”
Steinar didn’t understand, but in 2023 he met the Thai man’s aunt who lived in San Francisco, but was visiting Bangkok and she told Steinar that his friend had jumped out from the 10th floor here in Bangkok, a suicide. Steinar was shocked and mourned his friend.
The aunt owned several properties in Bangkok and offered Steinar to reside in an apartment at a reasonable cost, which he happily accepted.
Steinar has met a lot of people in all the coffeeshops he visits. One day, he sat at a coffee shop with a Canadian friend and they saw a man that Steinar knew he had seen before who looked completely finished.
The man told Steinar and his friend that he was very drunk. He went on telling them that he had met a friendly Thai woman and he had given her his credit card and told her what amount of money she was allowed to cash out. Well, the woman took the chance and emptied his card. One should be aware that Thailand doesn’t only consist of honest, smiling people that the TAT likes to tell foreigners.
This is not quite unusual. How many “farang” men have not blindly trusted the warm smiling Thai ladies and got robbed. It’s something that happens all the time, not saying it couldn’t happen anywhere else.
Stig’s trouble
“Last year 2023 I arrived in Thailand and went directly to a hotel on Sukhumvit, Soi 4 Nana. I became a frequent guest at the hotel bar and got to know many people. After only a few days, the manager told me that I could stay with her. I thought the lady was nice and seemed honest, so I thought, why not?”
“A few days after my moving in with her, she said I should not carry my credit card around, but give it to her to lock in her safe. The woman gave me 5-6000 thb cash that she said came from her money. I didn’t want to accept the money, but she insisted and told me I could pay her back later.”
“I was once married to a Thai woman from Surin. So this kind woman offered to drive me to Surin, so I could visit my children’s grandparents and she paid for the whole trip.”
“I one day asked the woman if she had cashed money from my credit card, but she answered “nonsense, absolutely not”. I checked on my card and found out lots of money was missing. There was money cashed on ATM machines and spent on a restaurant next to her bar. I asked her to give me my card back, but she said she couldn’t find it in the apartment anymore. But wasn’t she supposed to keep it in her safe?”
“I immediately called the bank to report her. I told her that I was going to the police and report her. She begged me not to do so, as that would give her business a lot of trouble. In all, close to 250.000 thb were gone.”
“I did call the Tourist Police, but was told to contact the Lumpini police station. I went there and filed a report. I had proof of all transactions. Finally, I could talk to an investigator who promised to help me. I speak Thai quite well and started to explain my problem to him.”
“After having spent some hours together, he and I went to the woman’s apartment. She had at that time already kicked me out. First, we had to wait outside her apartment, but after a while she appeared, talking on the phone with a Thai man and she said that the police were going to come and catch her.”
“She suddenly became very violent and attacked me. She hit me on my head with her mobile, while she was screaming loudly. She found a stick to hit me and the policeman only laughed. He took the stick away from her, but listened to her story about me that was full of lies. The policeman drove me back to my hotel and said he wouldn’t follow up on my story, he believed her.”
“After that I couldn’t cash out any money as my card was blocked. That was the time when I contacted the Norwegian embassy. I managed to have some money transferred to the embassy and they paid me cash.”
Stig’s family knew about Stig’s drinking habits and didn’t want to send him more than a 1000 thb to help him out.
This is when Stig met Steinar at the coffee shop, and he asked Steinar for permission to have his pension transferred to Steinar’s account and Steinar accepted and paid Stig out monthly.
Then he met Steinar..
“One evening I sat outside my hotel where I met this Norwegian man, Steinar. He had been a police man in Norway for a long time and a member of the SWAT Team. Our meeting was a blessing for me. Here was a man who believed me and my story and who was willing to listen and even help me. He invited me for coffee and bought me food. I also transferred money to him that he cashed out and returned to me.”
“Steinar took me on long walks in the park close to my hotel. I told him my wish was to return to Norway asap and he decided to follow me to the Emirate office. There he bought me a flight ticket. It cost 15.000 Norwegian crowns, quite a big amount. He said he trusted me that I would pay him back. Soon after my arrival in Oslo/Norway I did pay him back.”
“It’s a blessing to find and know that there are people among us who are giving you trust when you need it the most and also are willing to help. I can’t express my gratitude enough for Steinar. We have a good relationship even today, after all that has happened. He also let me know that I, with children, do have to take responsibility and rightly so.”
“I was married to a Thai woman for 11 years and we have two wonderful children together, now 17 and 19 years old. They have lived 17 years in Norway, working and studying. Their mother and I got divorced 7 years ago.”
“I also think it’s a real miracle that when I returned to Norway my father had a stroke and happily, I was there for him and could immediately help him, as I’m familiar with First Aid after having worked several years offshore. In fact, I have been working in 43 different countries. I have never had any problems anywhere, except for here in Thailand.”
Stig says that he does not at all agree when the Tourist authority says they do everything to help tourists that have been robbed or abused in Thailand. The police department is corrupt, he explains. He mentions that the restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 6 that the dishonest woman spent time at belongs to a policeman and the woman who took his money is still managing her bar, which is located close to that restaurant.
Stig finishes by saying that he still loves the Land of Smiles, but wants to warn foreign men for street-smart women.
“I know about more men who have been robbed by the same woman, one of them a Danish man. She managed to steal 40.000 thb from and I think she has stolen a very expensive apartment from an American, but I can’t prove it. My story might help open up foreign men’s eyes.”
