German Expat Mugged By Phuket Teen Gang

August 20, 2013

A 56-year-old German man, Peter Hellmuth, was kicked off his motorbike in the early hours (August 19) and mugged by a gang of seven Thai teenagers as he was driving to his Nai Harn home.

Phuket – August,19,2013; Mr Hellmuth, who has been in Phuket for 10 months, told The Phuket News that it was a bad ending to what would have otherwise been a pleasant night.

“I had been at the opening of a new bar in Chalong, and left there at about 2am to drive home. I stopped at Supercheap at the corner of Soi Khokyang in Nai Harn to buy a carton of cigarettes. I bought them and headed home through Soi Khokyang, which is a very quiet shortcut home that many [locally-based] people use.”

He was followed. “I saw three boys on a bike but I thought nothing of it. I began driving home and they drove past me a few times and slowed down [to let me pass]. Then, when I slowed down on a speed bump, they kicked me off the bike.”

Still very shaken, Mr Hellmuth says he cannot remember with any degree of clarity what happened next, but he does know that his carton of cigarettes and mobile phone were stolen.

“They demanded money, but I answered ‘Mai mee satang’ [i don’t have any money.]

“One of them got out a small machete and asked again, I repeated that I didn’t have any money. I had only B40 in my wallet [but in any case] they didn’t check my rear pocket, which is where I keep it.

“Then four more boys came, two each on a bike. They were aged between 17-19 years old and the leader of the gang had strange spiky hair.”

Mr Hellmuth has abrasions on his shoulder, forearm and eyebrow, and – as he was wearing a helmet and there were no rips in his clothes – he believes that he must have been beaten, though he cannot recall.

After the boys had taken Mr Hellmuth’s possessions they drove off and he managed to get home.

Mr Hellmuth shares a house with fellow German Christoph Huber, who himself had a disturbing encounter about six weeks ago with a street gang in Nai Harn.

He stopped to put fuel in his motorbike at a coin-operated pump, he recalls. “Some boys drove past, then stopped, and one of them pulled out a gun – I don’t know if it was real or not – then they just drove off.”

Mr Huber believes that teenage gangs mugging lone people has become quite a common occurrence in Nai Harn.

“A few weeks ago a bar owner near here was also kicked off his bike and mugged, and probably the same gang of kids did it. I think they go out looking for drunk old men to target.”

Like Mr Huber and the bar owner, Mr Hellmuth has decided not to go to the police.

“They’ll just get bailed the next day and nothing happens anyway.”

Instead he has resolved never to use Soi Khokyang again and in the future, stick to the main roads.

View the original story on The Phuket News