A British backpacker who was arrested for allegedly picking up a lost phone off the ground outside of the Chiang Mai airport returned home after spending 10 days in Thai jail.
Chris Dodd, 26, said he picked up the phone while waiting for a taxi and subsequently took it to his hostel where he planned to report the missing phone to police while trying to find the owner.
Under Thailand criminal law though, once Dodd picked up the phone and moved it to a different location, it became an act of theft, according to Thai authorities.
Once in custody, Dodd was stripped naked by police and had his dreadlocks shaved off and then was put in a holding cell that was overflowing with other bodies.
“Nobody spoke English. It was really intimidating. You just have to fight for a space on the floor and you have people’s legs all over you,” Dodd said in an interview with the BBC.
The charges, which carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison, were eventually dropped.
Dodd’s family and friends raised 828,000 baht to pay for his bail.
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