Gunpoint robbery in BKK1

Bad luck.
I shudder when I see people walking late at night around BKK even on rue pasteur.
And women should not carry bags,it makes them a target.
I occasionally warn tourist women with shoulder bags or tourists with big cameras but they always pooh pooh me.

I'm disappointed to hear, yet again, that this happened in our quiet little neighbourhood.
I'm disappointed to hear, yet again, that a gun was pointed by the assailants in someone's face.
I'm disappointed to hear, yet again, that there was no "police" presence (moreso considering BKK1 Police Station is located 2 or 3 houses up from the corner of Paster/St 51 on St 322, right where your mugging occured - a street where most of the expat-related muggings occur). Mind you, it doesn't surprise me, as I believe BKK1 police station only has 2 cops on the job on any given night - and definitely none on the street in the area where most of these crimes against foriegners are occuring.
I'm comforted to hear that there were NO shots fired, as was the case in one of the two muggings I've experienced in this most dangerous of towns I've been living in (the first mugging, I was punched in the face............. twice................).
BOTH MUGGINGS, some 16 months apart, occured on the corner of Sts 310 and 51, at a not-unreasonable time of night....... 10.45pm.......... Most importantly, and also distinctly related to your experience, prior to BOTH muggings I'd just left Golden Street (St 278) 4 or 5 minutes earlier having exited one of the Expat-frequented facilities (the first time, a massage/spa place, the second time I'd departed Elsewhere). I WAS NOT displaying anything, nor "flashing" anything around (as I've since been told I was apparently doing). Nor had I been "spending up big", nor "causing a cufuffle or ruckus", nor had I had my computer "out in public view". Nada, non, nein, HeT.
The possessions that I was ambushed and had a gun shoved in my face for, were all concealed in rather normal non-descript bags (there were 2 bags, one on top of the other on my shoulder - both hung on to tightly with my opposite hand).

But that is what's similar to your houseguest - I was carrying a bag.

Albeit the first mugging, it was hooked to the moto under my legs, and later double "lashed" around my forearm as I was undoing my gate astride my moto. During the second mugging, the small handbag was under the non-descript grass bag I mentioned above. The second mugging I was accompanied by a friend, a male, who kindly offered to get me to my gate in a tuktuk "because it's a dangerous city" (ironically he said this a mere 5 minutes before the actual event).
The first mugging, the assailants got nothing as they'd dragged me off my stationary bike, gate-side as I was unlocking it, into the middle of the road and punched me for the bag they viewed on my arm. The assailant couldn't get it off, so he brutally punched a woman twice in the jaw. His accomplice was awaiting the "cache" on a idling moto. It wasn't until I screamed to the heavens that people came running and this frightened the thieves away. Nothing was broken on/in my face, thankfully, but I ended up with a jaw-line that looked like the Bride of Frankenstein. I am stating this as many people believe this will not happen to them, or that this is not a violent people. It can. and they are (some, not all, but this fact has a tendency to tarnish my wariness of many).
Something we should all consider, and that I was directly advised by the Australian Embassy after my second mugging: Someone, or "someones", watch the expats. Always.

Is it merely "coincidence" that your experience and my experience occured within 30 paces, on the same street having come from the same locale? (Me thinks not!).

For me, both of these experiences have occurred after leaving Golden St (278) at 10.40is- pm, going south down Pasteur, 1 block from your experience, at 10.45pm - BOTH of them!!! At first, I thought it may have had something to do with the experiences occuring on or near a West to East Monivong thoroughfare.......... but I doubt that now having read of your terrible experience. The Aussie Embassy told me, cate-blanche and unequivocally, ALL EXPATS ARE TARGETED HERE and that I DID NOTHING "WRONG" behaviour-wise on both of those evenings. I am merely an expat, and a female, and therefore a more vulnerable target. Your experience confirms that there are criminals out there at night "hunting" for people like you and I.
I have also been advised that men are equally targeted as your unfortunate experience confirms (albeit they didn't take anything from you, they did take my companions wallet) and like you, it was over within, maybe 10 or 15 seconds, at most. It was but a mere 5 or 6 months ago that a British man was shot twice and was flown back to the UK for surgery from the implications of how and where the second bullet entered his body, with permanent injuries now from those bullets.

As any of us who live and work here, very humbly and very respectfully, may concur, it's not uncommon to finish work late-ish (moreso if you're a teacher in a language school or university where lessons conclude at 8pm), go for some dinner somewhere, log-on in an internet cafe or a restaurant/bar that has wifi (as Elsewhere does, be it that it's behind a high wall so anyone on the street cannot see you dong this), and then proceed home after 10pm. I do realise mhweinstein that this occured to you on a Saturday evening, a night which is even more common for foreigners to let their hair down and be out just that little bot later than usual.

I really feel for you all. I can completely understand how shocking this experience is and I want you to know that my thoughts are with you all, as each of you has a different part in this overall experience, yet bound by the reality that it did happen.
You may want to look at these other posts - and I hope that collectively our Embassies and other Embassies put the pressure on the "appropriate" people who benefit from having foriegners here. This city needs more police presence in these areas. For goodness sake, Siem Reap doesn't have these same types of crimes. It has many tourists there, and has the appropriate police presence there yet I wonder how many more foreigners live in Phnom Penh.......... I would hedge a bet that there's more here than foreign tourists nightly in Siem Reap!

Those links are (my 2nd mugging is the discussion in the robbery-bkk-1 link, which I haven't yet posted on - but I may link it to here so there's some synchronicity/concurrency to them):
* http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/-phnom-penh-pub-expats...
-and-
* http://www.expat-advisory.com/forum/asia/cambodia/-phnom-penh-pub-expats...

A footnote for you to "file away to the keeper" - I was told by my landlady, a very well-known, highly-respected professional Khmer woman, (she truely is lovely and I am glad she's been the "rock", the strong woman, that she is and has been for me during these traumatic experiences) that she was contacted by the local constabulary the day the Cambodian Daily ran the article concerning my mugging. She confided in me that the local constabulary had asked her to stop me from saying what I had said about the country (I was quoted as saying it's "the most dangerous country I've ever been to"). Those same constabulary had stated that the Minister for Tourism had contacted them directly and is concerned by my comments, "as these comments get seen/read overseas". As I live in a highly concentrated expat area in what is "perceived" as being a "passive" country, I believe I have a fairly reasonable ability to discern between where I feel threatened and where I feel safe. I also believe I have a right to perceive what may be dangerous to/for me and for my life. I have lived abroad in London and San Francisco, downtown in both cases, as well as in Sydney. No, these cities are NOT Phnom Penh, quite obviously, and Yes, they ARE in the West. I do realise these crimes can and do happen anywhere, but mostly one must "go looking for them" in these western cities, or go to neighbourhoods where crimes "reliably" occur. Do we know they exist? Yes. Do we go there? No.
I have also travelled extensively in countries considered more dangerous than the west, such as Mexico, Romania, Turkey, Indonesia and within many other large urbanised cities throughout 4 continents.
Nowhere have I experienced being targeted, as a foreigner - a racial crime against me because of the perception of who I am. Some may say I was luncky before now. But I dont think of it as being lucky about not being mugged, but I do believe I was unlucky in these 2 experiences here in Phnom Penh. Bad timing, bad place. I am not ostentatious, nor am I ignorant. I am not disrespectful, nor am I apathetic. I was unlucky both of those evenings, as I was targeted for being a foreigner.
I do not lead a wild and debauched life as is often the case with (some) foreigners in this country, and I resent suggestions that one must have been disrespectful thus causing these crimes against foreigners. This is the most dangerous country I've been to and I am adamant in my opinion that this would NOT happen in Thailand against a "farang" nor would it happen in Vietnam. It does and would only happen here in Cambodia by default of the perception of who we are - and WE ARE targeted for this.

nhweinstein, I wish you and your companions a kindred and speedy "recovery" from this incident. I do not wish this terrifying and traumatising experience on ANYONE and can truely empathise with you all about the night concerned, as well as about the hours, days, weeks that will follow getting over it. I am glad for your houseguest's sake that she has friends around her, as the aftermath of knwing it happened once (or twice) is certainly as daunting as the experience itself. It is but a mere 2 months since my own ambush experience and while some may feel I'm waffling on about all this, it can and does take time to deal with it - the internal trauma can creep up on and reveal itself in a surprising number of ways, So much moreso as there's too much banter amongst expats about what should and shouldn't be done, was and wasn't done, can and can't be done - almost to the expense of blatent acceptance - when really, we should all be speaking with our Embassy to do more to pressure the police into having a presence. It is just not accceptable that this country accepts US$980,000,000 in this fiscal year - from who??? International governments and NGO's, yet no one has the courage to speak up about the dangers of living here. For the sake of us all - Khmers and foreigners alike, civil ordinance, gun control and violence is still raging out of hand. You only have to look at the Phnom Penh Post's daily Police Blotter and see the violent types of crimes people do to each other here.
This country deserves to be developed the way it "perceives" itself to be, what with big buildings and escalators and malls and fast-food outlets (!!!!!) into an "international city" in a Royal Kingdom, and not keeping it minus a century or two as some ramshackled lawless village controlled by gangs and crime and blatent warfare.
Enough said by me for now, I've become somewhat "heavier" since these muggings (likely a cumulative effect). But I really do empathise greatly, deeply, with you and your companions, and hope you'll never experience this violence toward you again. From what I experienced, I wouldn't wish it on a single soul, although unfortunately my hopefulness that it won't occur to others is tainted by the realism of living in this city.
Take care, watch out for yourself and for others.

dtm39, if you read all my post, you will see I wrote the following:
"I do not wish this terrifying and traumatising experience on ANYONE" (capitals clearly in my original post)
-and-
"For the sake of us all - Khmers and foreigners alike, civil ordinance, gun control and violence is still raging out of hand"

So, Khmers are robbing Khmers violently..........???!!! What is it you're saying dtm39????? I don't quite understand......... you're saying that there's a culture of violence here. That the people are a passively violent....... No????? But of course it's acceptable and expected to rob foreigners but not each other?
I personally wouldn't have said, and am not saying that dtm39, but I did recommend checking out Phnom Penh Post's daily Police Blotter, it's interesting yet really heartwrenching reading from time to time - just to cement one's ideas about what life's like here when something goes wrong. Really really wrong in the sociological sense.

I think Cambodia is a relatively safe place, once the number of daily robberies in the city starts getting counted in the hundreds or the tactic switches to shoot first take valuables second, that's when you need to start really loosing some sleep. As it stands like catching dengue fever, although common, you still need to be relatively unlucky to have it happen to you any given year.

I've been here seven year and luckily I've never been robbed, but I also grew up in a city where robberies whilst not on epidemic scales were not uncommon, so maybe my spidey senses were tuned before I arrived.

Case in point - 375,000 muggings a year in the UK
Here's an example of how attitudes change towards crime and how people almost reach the point of acceptance

There are plenty of things to loose sleep over in Cambodia, such traffic accidents, distance to the nearest decent A&E, the poverty the bottom 10% in this country endure, but the fact that you will probably be on the receiving end of a robbery at some point isn't one of them.

The other thing is to be aware of the trends, in the UK most robberies are carried out by pairs of muggers on foot using knives, and public transport vehicles, stops or stations are the most common venue, with robberies often in broad daylight. In Cambodia, most robberies involve a pedestrian as a victim, three or more robbers traveling by moto using guns and the venue is usually on or close to main roads with fast getaways, with most robberies (not bag snatches) happening at night. So I would say that by avoiding being a pedestrian at night, especially in areas known for robberies you will greatly reduce your chances of being a victim.

Also be careful of anyone following you on the way home when using moto's or tuk-tuks as a lot of foreigners seem to get robbed while paying a fare to a driver. So have the money ready for a quick exit and learn how to say in Khmer "jow dam yerng", if you think someone is following you.