I found this story posted on the www.ajarn.com message board. It is
quite hair-raising. Would anyone in soc.culture.thai know this
building? Is the story likely to be true or not?
Vagabond
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WARNING - ACCOMMODATION HORROR STORY SOI 22 SUKHUMVIT
SRINUAN COURT, SOI 22 SUKHUMVIT IS DANGEROUS - DO NOT STAY THERE. IF
YOU'RE STAYING THERE NOW, TAKE REAL CARE.
By Anonymous
Posted 9-23-2001 08:20
Back in late August someone asked this board about Srinuan Court
because he or she was thinking of moving in there. I wished I had seen
it before today. This is the first time I've accessed ajarn.com since
I got to Thailand.
I post this message in the hope that it will prevent someone else from suffering what I endured there in the last two weeks. If I can help at
least one teacher - or anyone for that matter - to avoid this
apartment block and its violent and possibly psychotic landlord, this
will be worth it. He robbed me blind and beat me so badly that my ribs
are cracked or broken. The attack was unprovoked (if you saw him you'd
know not to even kid the guy). I left that place in the middle of the
night in fear of my life.
I moved there in July, just after securing a teaching job. At first I
was very happy. The landlord and in particular his wife were very nice
to me, and the neighbourhood is great. Things changed when I queried
my monthly bill - the electricity charge was way too high. He charges
at the more-or-less standard 5 baht a unit. Given that I was hardly at
the apartment except from about 9 pm till early morning the next day
and never used the aircon unit, 1200 baht looked steep. I askled
around at work and all of my colleagues told me it was way too high.
I was friendly and polite with him but he refused to show me the meter reading and got quite angry, which surprised me. I'd never seen him or
indeed any Thai lose his temper till that point.
I left it. Mai pen rai and all that. Still it got me worried. After
that I noticed his attitude towards me changed. He refused to do
things like fix the hot water on the shower, petty stuff like that.
He'd just nod and say he'd do it. Then didn't. Next problem: he took
my next lot of rent but gave me an excuse for not giving me a receipt.
'Come back tomorrow.' Alarm bells faintly ringing now.
I bumped into a friend on the Soi, someone I'd met at Srinuan Court.
He told me he had moved out because the landlord had got quite
physically threatening with him. Apparently the landlord had agreed to
store bags for him while he went on a trip to the islands. When my
friend got back the landlord charged him a full two weeks' apartment
rent even though the bags were stowed in the office or somewhere, not
in an apartment. When my friend said this was not reasonable, the
landlord kicked off at him. My friend left and the landlord kept his
whole deposit. He told me to be careful.
By now I was getting seriously worried about getting my own deposit
back - I was able to move out after the agreed three months and I
wanted out because of the hassle and the atmosphere.
I (very) carefully and politely asked his wife for the missing rent
receipt. She provided it. Next day the landlord said to me, 'You deal
with me - not my wife.' 'Okay, okay.'
I started looking for a new apartment that night. I found one and
explained to the new landlady where I was staying. She said
immediately, with no other prompting from me, 'O that is a very bad
place. Bad man. You should take care.' She also told me that one of
her previous tenants had been cheated out of his deposit and beaten up
when he complained.
By now I was walking on eggshells in that place. I was increasingly
afraid that something bad was going to happen. It did. I was paying
him my rent for September when he added an extra 500 baht with a pen
to my printed bill for the TV, even though the TV was already there
itemised at 500 baht. This was beginning to freak me out but I stayed
calm with him. Everything I'd read about Thailand before I came here
advised staying cool in disputes with Thais - that if you show anger
you look a fool at best and at worst it can turn a situation really
nasty. I only had enough money in my hand for the original, pre-500
addition he had just made. I explained I'd have to go to my room and
counted the money for him to show him why. As I was leaving the office
he rose quickly from his chair. He grabbed hold of me and with a
horrible feeling inside I saw he had lost it. He was shouting, 'COW DE
MONEY! COW DE MONEEEY!' Then he started clubbing me with his fists.
The man is immensely strong and I am far from it (5' 9", 155 lbs). He battered me to the floor. At no point did I try to strike him. I just couldn't believe what was happening. Then he started kicking me hard
in the ribs - three, maybe four times. He did this in full view of
other tenants, Thai and farang, none of whom moved or said a word. I
heard his mother rush into the office, shouting at him to stop. I gave
her the money, got the extra 500 from my room and returned there
immediately. One of the scariest parts of what happened was the speed
with which he composed himself after he'd quit kicking the shit out of
me.
I never went back to that block before midnight after that. I told my
friend when I saw him next what had happened. He has a Thai girlfriend
who spoke to many people in the neighbourhood over the next few days.
The stories we then heard about this guy are horrendous - he steals
the full deposits of all but the biggest farang tenants. Once he took
more than 40,000 baht from a family renting three rooms, even though
he knew they were desperate for the money. There is other stuff,
really bad shit. We were told by one bar owner and his wife that when
he feels like having sex he just lets himself into Thai girls' rooms
and rapes them, apparently with a lot of violence.
I never read a single similar tale to this before I came to Thailand
so at first I blamed myself for this, thinking I must have offended
himn in some way - yet at the same time feeling I couldn't possibly
have.
If his mother hadn't stopped his assault I could have been very
seriously hurt. No none has ever, ever called the police on him -
tourist or otherwise. Nor will I. He's too fucking strange for that.
If you know anyone coming to Thailand who will be looking for an
apartment, please please let them see this message. Thank you.
---
Souce: The message board at http://www.ajarn.com
Total bullshit. I've stayed there many times and have never ever had a problem with Jom (the owner) nicest guy in the world.
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