UPDATE: Thai woman asks police to arrest British pickup artist ‘Explorer Nick’
Keep your eyes peeled, folks. Looks like a disciple of notorious American internet creep and self-proclaimed “pickup artist” David Bond is working his way around Bangkok’s Nana and Asoke neighborhoods and filming himself trying to pick up unsuspecting Thai women for his paid YouTube channel.
Meet Nicholas Coakley, aka “Explorer Nick, who has filmed videos together with Bond — who travels Asia making videos in which he tries to bed local women. A Thai woman who was approached by Coakley and later found out their encounter had been videotaped, has told Coconuts in an exclusive interview that she plans on taking legal action against the British “travel vlogger” (*cough*perv*cough*) and calling for immigration to bounce his ass.
Sawitree “Sky” Paotadaeng recalled the moment Nick approached her at Terminal 21 shopping mall last Thursday, a scenario she says was filmed and posted online without her knowledge.
“First, I’m scared and I’m furious. How could he do this? He didn’t ask for permission [to film me]. Second, he posted the video in a way that looks down on women, as if he could get any girl at the mall,” Sawitree told Coconuts Bangkok.
Sawitree, a 29-year-old pharmacist and freelance model, appeared in the degrading YouTube clip titled “Failed To Pick Up Black Girl In Bangkok | Asian Girl POV,” which was reportedly posted on Nick’s YouTube channel on Monday but has since been removed when the resultant social media hubbub about his disturbing persona erupted yesterday.
The 29-year-old said she was taking a break from her job at the pharmacy when she sensed she was being followed. She was.
“When I went down the escalator. He shouted at me, ‘Lady in black! Lady in black’ and approached me,” she said. “When it happened, I didn’t see any cameras. I think he might have had a hidden cam in his pocket. He was speaking loudly, and I was scared. At least, it [the mall] was crowded.”
As you can see from the clip, she was obviously not interested, going so far as to show the two-meter-tall PUA a photo of her and her American boyfriend. That didn’t stop him from asking for her LINE ID with a smooth: “He doesn’t have to know.” Ugh.
Once it was over, Sawitree put the encounter out of her mind. That is, until a complete stranger, presumably an “Explorer Nick” fan, found her on Facebook and sent her a link to the YouTube video, which terrified her.
Sawitree captured the video before it was removed from YouTube. Now she’s sharing the clip as a warning to other Thai women.
“I can’t be the only women who have been harassed by him,” she said.
“He treats women like objects. I didn’t do anything wrong. I was simply being polite. Besides, He’d never get with me,” she added.
Not only the video — which could theoretically land him in Thai prison under the kingdom’s computer crime laws — is gone. All of the content on Nick’s channel has been pulled off, along with all of his social media accounts — Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Little is known about Coakley, which may or may not be his real name. He describes his content as “pickup videos” on Patreon, a website where he charges followers anywhere from $27 to $600 dollars per month to access his content. Not gonna lie, we’re really wondering what exactly you’d get for 600 big ones.
On the Patreon account, he also confirmed he’s in Bangkok and plans to travel all over Asia “making similar content for you guys.”
Nick seems fairly new to the game, with only about 3,000 subscribers on YouTube. But he’s already made videos together with brother in douchebaggery David Bond, who has more than 89,000 fans.
Comments by members of Everything Bangkok, a well-traveled expat message board where clips of the Nick-Sawitree mall encounter first went viral, said Nick’s cringe-worthy attempt to pick up the part-time model is “hard to watch.”
As of this story’s publishing, Sawitree was at the police station planning file a report … and she’s allowed Coconuts Bangkok to tag along. We’ll follow up later today with a breakdown of how exactly this goes.
