BANGKOK — An investigation has been launched into a municipal security worker alleged in a widely shared video to have taken money from a tourist.
The incident, alleged to have occurred Tuesday in Bangkok’s historic quarter, is the latest scandal to hit the city’s tessakit department, long criticized for aggressive and predatory behavior toward foreign tourists.
In the video, a Thai man berates a tessakit officer later identified as Pairoj Tinno, who was kilometers away from his assigned area, for forcefully taking thousands of baht from a tourist’s wallet as a fine for littering.
“Isn’t this what they call robbery of foreigners?” wrote Facebook user Austin Sanyawutthi, who uploaded the video. “He’s a Pathum Wan District tessakit, but he behaved like a bandit.”