I thought that forumites might like to read the following true account of a truly horrendous experience which a friend of mine has just got through in Bali.
A couple of details have been changed to protect the identity of those involved. The purpose of posting this story is to give warning to travellers and tourists in Bali who might find themselves in a similar situation.
Just over a month ago my friend had his bags stolen from the back of a rented Suzuki Jimny (jeep). This happened whilst he was dining with me and the car was parked outside the restaurant. The car was "helped" into its space by a seemingly friendly satpam. When we had finished eating and went back to the car the back door had been forced open (it was locked) and three bags were gone. These contained a lot of reasonably valuable possessions including full dive equipment. The supposed satpam was gone.... he was of course not a satpam and had nothing to do with the restaurant.
Being more or less resident in Bali, I kind of knew what a nightmare we were now in for. First I called the local police who told me that it was not their department and I should call the tourist police. Called them and waited and waited. They arrived three hours later and spoke little English.... it was a good job I was there to smooth things along in Bahasa. I gave them a good description of the "satpam" and also told them I had seen him around a lot and where to try to find him. They did nothing about that but rather took us back to the police station and after a two hour process of waiting and wasting we had a badly typed police report of the event. This was of course vital for my friend's insurance claim.
In the next week I started my own enquiries as I knew the police would not bother and I had seen this guy around and had a reasonable idea of where to look for him. After an amazing set of co-incidences, we found the perpetrator and most of the stolen porperty. Leaving out lots of details it turned out that he was a policeman's relative. The police took possession of the stolen goods (some had already been sold) and urged us not to prosecute which we agreed to. Then the trouble really began. I was constantly hassled by the police to pay them a reward for finding the goods!!! Very funny as I found them and the police had done nothing. Then my friend returned and the police demanded 1 million Rp for the return of the stolen goods to their owner. It went on and on and on and on. The thief was of course completely immune.
After a further week's hassle, my friend had to do something as he was due to fly home. In the end we ended up paying Rp 600,000 (bargaining applies to officialdom in Bali as well as everywhere else) to get back the goods which I had retrieved but which the police decided were their property.
This left an even nastier taste than usual in my mouth and my friend will certainly never return to this country.
I know that this is not so unusual and all Bali expats will have some sort of horror story involving officialdom but I just had to post this tale as it has really p*ssed me. I should of just taken personal possession of the stolen goods and returned them to my friend without involving the police.
The moral for all visitors, is please, please NEVER even bother trying to do official things the right way in this most corrupt of countries.
Yours on a truly Blue Bali Day!