An American man was fined and humiliated on the Internet after being caught on video performing a sex act on a bargirl outside her Soi 6 establishment.
Ben Bartanyi, 49, reported to Pattaya police April 16 along with 20-year-old hostess Natenapa Prawatdee and Uthairath Nuanprakon, 35, manager of the Toy Box bar to explain the carry-on caught in a 20-second clip first posted to Facebook and which quickly went viral.
The video has now been shared and seen hundreds of thousands of times, with the usual criticism of Pattaya in comment sections.
American Ben Bartanyi and 20-year-old hostess Natenapa Prawatdee were caught on video performing a drunken, lewd act outside a Soi 6 establishment during Songkran.
Both bargirl and customer admitted being extremely drunk while engaging in Songkran revelry on the bar street. Witnesses reported the two several times getting frisky, each time taking it to a larger extreme.
The video clip captured by a Thai worker at a rival bar across the street only caught the final act, which ended up on the Internet.
Bartanyi was cited for lewd behavior, which carries a maximum fine of 500 baht. However, to settle the matter and make the charges disappear, people familiar with both the bar and customer posted online that the American paid as much as 30,000 baht. Toy Box’s owners, facing a possible five-year closure, also reportedly paid a hefty fine in excess of 100,000 baht.
Bartanyi was photographed back out cruising the bar street the following day.
