A chemist from Malad, who visited south-east Asia with his family recently, was shocked to discover that cash and debit cads had vanishedfrom his luggage.The victim, Satish Savala, came to know about the theft only after he returned to Mumbai. Satish suspects the theft took place during his stay at a hotel at Sukhmvitin in Bangkok. Burglars used the stolen debit cards, belonging to Satish and his daughter, to withdraw cash from a bank in Thailand.

I cannot approach the police in Mumbai as the theft took place in Bangkok. I don’t want to go back just to lodge a complaint, satish said. Employees of the travel firm that took us on the tour say they can’t do anything to help me either. I a feeling helpless.

Satish, his wife Leera and their children – Priyanka and Niyati – left Mumbai for their holiday on may 22. They were to visit Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand – which was the last stop of their foreign journey. On June 6, the family returned home and started unpacking. Niyati and I could not find our debit cards in our hands baggage. We searched the luggage and found that Rs.15,000 cash had also disappeared, satish said. On June 5 Satish approached the bank that issued the debit card and was shocked to learn that Rs.18,880 each had been withdrawn from his and Niyati bank accounts in Thailand. We had carried sufficient foreign currency and did not use our debit cards aborad as we had taken them along as an emergency provision, satish said.

Since our cards were newly issued we kept the ATM PIN details in the luggage. Moreover, the bank did not sent us a text massage when the amount was debited, Satish said.