Two Canadian women who ran up a 5,000-baht bill in a Walking Street go-go bar then found they didn’t have enough cash to pay up right away ended up with bruises after getting in a fight with bar staff.
Teachers Sara Harper, 27, and Shen Arnot, 25, went to Pattaya Police Station around 4 a.m. Feb. 12 to report an attack at the Palace go-go bar.
They told police they had run up a large bill and then realized they were short. So one went to an ATM to get more money, only to find that account was bare as well. So one woman volunteered to go back to her hotel to get more money while the other stayed behind.
Canadian teachers Sara Harper and Shen Arnot (left) went to Pattaya Police Station to report an attack at the Palace go-go bar.
The delay was lengthy, however, and the remaining teacher told police she had tried to go outside to peer down Walking Street and see if her friend was returning. However, she claimed, she was prevented from doing so and assaulted by a dancer and waitress.
The friend eventually returned and paid in full.
One employee involved, however, told a very different story when she made a second trip back to Pattaya police station later the next day to clear her name.
She told police that one of the two hard-drinking Canucks had started a fight with another service girl earlier inside the bar, hitting her in the face and forcing a trip to the hospital.
Tensions were obviously high when the two women, now unwelcome in the bar, said they didn’t have enough money and when the second woman went outside, appearing to try and do a runner, a fight ensued.
The excuses may be a moot point for the bar, however, as Walking Street pub owners were told on Jan. 13 in no uncertain terms that violence of any sort against customers by bar staff would result in their establishments being closed for five years.
Pol. Maj. Gen. Aumpon Buarubporn, commander of Chonburi police, told the bar owners that he realized, in some cases, customers may be the ones who resort to violence first. However, he said, security must not retaliate in kind. Instead owners were instructed that each venue would be given the direct number of a police officer who would respond promptly.
No one inside the Palace apparently picked up the phone. The bar was open again the following nights, but a shutdown order may be coming its way.
