My son and I were walking down Sanphawut Road at around 4.30pm on Thursday. He was planning to get a shave at a barbershop in Bang Na while I was on my way to catch a bus to work, at The Nation building. I noticed a group of three men, one in uniform, standing opposite the Chinese temple.
They nodded at one other then stopped us and asked whether we were Indians. Assuming they were policemen, I answered “yes” and showed them my driving licence and Nation ID card. One officer, the tallest in the group, then said: “You don’t talk anymore. We are from Immigration. We want your passport.” Another policeman emerged from the rear seat of a Toyota Vigo pickup and pushed us into it. He then took away my wallet containing my ID card, driving licence, credit card, debit card and money.
We told them our passports were at home, and they agreed to take us there. But instead they sped past our building, telling us to “shut up” and that they were taking us to the immigration department. I demanded to have my wallet, then snatched it back and put it in my pocket.
Instead of taking a right-turn for Suan Plu and the police immigration department, the pickup went left to Thanon Thangrot Fai Sai Kao and towards Samrong.
I said I needed to call my office and tell them I was being taken to the immigration department, but they would have none of it. The policeman in the rear seat was trying to get hold of my finger; I realised he wanted to remove my wedding ring. By this time I sensed that all of them were drunk and looking to make a quick buck from innocent foreigners. The policeman passed my ring to his colleague in the front seat, but I managed to get it back, telling him that it had sentimental value. As I went to call my office again, he tried to grab my cellphone. My son protested, and was told that he was “talking to much” by the driver, who threatened he would be shot. The same man then pointed his gun at my son and cocked it, with his finger on the trigger.
I told them they didn’t look like real policemen, (two were in plainclothes) and asked them to show their ID cards. Simultaneously, they produced their cards, and said: “How dare you ask such questions. We don’t like The Nation. You are against the police. You guys will be taken to Pattaya and shot.”
We asked what they wanted. The policeman at the rear took out a cellophane bag and told us to put all our belongings in it. He then grabbed at my son’s pocket in an effort to get his wallet. My son resisted and the guy told his colleague in the front to shoot my son. The front-seat passenger again pointed his gun at my son and said that he “deserved to die”. Meanwhile he took away a bag with a pair of trousers I was carrying and handed it over to the man in the front passenger seat.
We knew by now that these “policemen” were dangerous scamsters, and that they would likely harm us before long. Looking for an escape route, we tried to wind down the windows.
The van slowed to a crawl as we reached an intersection and we took our chance, trying to open the doors and escape. Our assailants struggled desperately to hold on to us. I managed to open my door, which was immediately nicked by a car coming from the opposite direction. The driver got scared and started screaming at his colleagues to stop us. We made up our minds to start shouting for help, which attracted plenty of attention, with passers-by turning to see what was going on.
The driver seemed even more spooked and swerved towards the right kerb, at which point we jumped out. The pickup, with number plate Cho kacher O ang 5342, then sped away against the traffic in the wrong lane.
Shaken up, we reflected we had been lucky to escape much worse at the hands of three out-of-control, drunk, gun-wielding thugs calling themselves policeman. It was a hair-raising ordeal and my 17-year-old son is already having nightmares. This is Bangkok, not the badlands of Pakistan or Iraq, and yet men in uniform can seemingly do anything to foreigners. I dread to think what the outcome would have been had something similar happened to my wife or any foreign woman less able to defend herself.
There is a saying in an Indian language, that if the fence starts eating the crop, there is absolutely no hope. Likewise, if protectors turn predators, who can the ordinary citizen turn to?
Vigilante squads funded unwittingly by Thai taxpayers have become increasingly dangerous in recent years, preying on innocent foreigners and poor migrant labourers in the first week of every month. For the good of society, measures should be taken quickly and firmly to tackle them.
