Let’s face it: hotel freebies are wonderful. Few can resist the allure of all those complimentary pens, soaps and shampoos beckoning you to slip them in your bag and take them home. But there’s a limit, people — not everything in your hotel room is up for grabs. One Indian family, who apparently has a different philosophy on the subject, learned the hard way that such behavior is not tolerated in Bali.
Over the weekend, a video of a family of Indian tourists getting caught red-handed stealing goods from a villa in the Sukawati sub-district of Bali went viral on social media. The clip, which was posted by Twitter user @hemanth, begins with a member of the villa staff going through the family’s luggage in an apparent attempt to see if any of their luggage contained items belonging to the villa.
This family was caught stealing hotel accessories. Such an embarrassment for India.
Each of us carrying an #IndianPassport must remember that we are ambassadors of the nation and behave accordingly.
India must start cancelling passports of people who erode our credibility. pic.twitter.com/unY7DqWoSr
— Hemanth (@hemanthpmc) July 27, 2019
In the video, a woman can be seen arguing with the staff, seemingly requesting to be let go since they had a flight to catch. The staff continues to search their bags and suitcases, and eventually discovered more accessories from the villa, which were obviously stolen.
At that point, the staff then asked them firmly to explain, and a man can be heard saying, “I will pay,” over and over again, only to be refused by the villa staff.
“This is not about the money. I know you have a lot of money. This is no respect. You come to Bali, you just steal – no respect,” one of the villa staff says.
Based on a photo posted by the Sukawati Police, it looks like the family took quite a lot of stuff – including hair dryers, soap dispenser and hangers. We can see that some of the items are cute and “Bali” enough to want to take home, but we’re pretty sure you can get hangers anywhere in the world, right?
Hemanth, the user who posted the viral video on Twitter, also wrote that “India must start canceling passports of people who erode our credibility.” He followed up the tweet of the video with other thoughts, such as the importance of a booklet on the do’s and don’ts for Indians traveling abroad, claiming that the incident in Bali is “not an isolated incident.”
Other Twitter users, many of whom appear to be from India themselves, have also expressed disgust and shame over the video.
A user by the name of Prakash Thaker even went as far as to say that the Indian government should “issue a lookout notice for them at all airports so that they’re arrested immediately on return.”
What a shame. All those who know this family should share this on WhatsApp widely that dis family should not be able to show their face anywhere when they are back in India. The govt should issue a lookout notice for them at all airports so that they’re arrested imdtly on return.
— Prakash Thaker (@ThakerPrakash) July 27, 2019
“After the (hotel) stuff was found, the guest admitted their mistake and apologized, and they returned everything they took while also paying for the missing stuff that was nowhere to be found,” the Sukawati Police explained in a statement.
The Indian family from the video may have managed to avoid getting charged by Bali authorities over the incident, but now that the video has gone viral and been covered extensively by the Indian media, they might have to deal with the consequences of their actions in a whole other way.
Read more news and updates from Bali here.
