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Cambodia Breaking News (Phnom Penh): A 29 year old backpacker, Tobias Runck, says he has overstayed his visa by 6 months and asked his family to send him almost €9,000 to cover his overstay fees, but since his visa was expired, he couldn't collect cash at a Western Union location in Cambodia, so he got his trusty tuk-tuk driver to receive the money instead.



The money was transferred from his family and picked up by the tuk-tuk driver, but now the driver is nowhere to be found, and Tobias Runck is still overstaying his visa and still without the funds he needs to pay the fees to exit the country.

Cambodians on social media have been offering the poor guy food and small amounts of money to keep him afloat until he can get himself sorted.



The money was wired to ACLEDA Bank and right now they are desperately trying to locate the tuk-tuk driver, HOUT BUNLIN, to retrieve the German's funds.

There are some long and awkward videos on Facebook which explain the story in more detail, but it's mainly in Khmer and Tobias Runck is sitting as still as possible with his hands in the 'wei' position.

Here is the tuk-tuk driver they are looking for:





And here is the bank wire transfer that was picked up by his favorite tuk-tuk driver:

CEOCambodiaNews wrote:Cambodia Breaking News (Phnom Penh): A 29 year old backpacker, Tobias Runck, says he has overstayed his visa by 6 months and asked his family to send him almost €9,000 to cover his overstay fees, but since his visa was expired, he couldn't collect cash at a Western Union location in Cambodia, so he got his trusty tuk-tuk driver to receive the money instead.



The money was transferred from his family and picked up by the tuk-tuk driver, but now the driver is nowhere to be found, and Tobias Runck is still overstaying his visa and still without the funds he needs to pay the fees to exit the country.

Cambodians on social media have been offering the poor guy food and small amounts of money to keep him afloat until he can get himself sorted.



The money was wired to ACLEDA Bank and right now they are desperately trying to locate the tuk-tuk driver, HOUT BUNLIN, to retrieve the German's funds.

There are some long and awkward videos on Facebook which explain the story in more detail, but it's mainly in Khmer and Tobias Runck is sitting as still as possible with his hands in the 'wei' position.

Here is the tuk-tuk driver they are looking for:



And here is the bank wire transfer that was picked up by his favorite tuk-tuk driver:

So his overstay was $1800 but he needed $9000 for his overstay

Trusting a Tuktuk driver with $9000, high change it will blow up in your face.

He should have used MG or WU and go to collect the cash together (sure, more expensive but way more secure)

Equinix wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2019 10:25 am
So his overstay was $1800 but he needed $9000 for his overstay

Trusting a Tuktuk driver with $9000, high change it will blow up in your face.

He should have used MG or WU and go to collect the cash together (sure, more expensive but way more secure)

judging by the kids face he probably had a large bill with his meth dealer to pay as well.

Kid looks like he's been crying for a month.

He told his tuk-tuk driver to go and get the money? He didn't go with him to the bank?

What could go wrong?

RickyBobby wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2019 10:57 am Kid looks like he's been crying for a month.

Kid looks like he should never have left home.

OK I see the source of confusion. Everyone can breath a sigh of relief. It's a case of mistaken identity and the photo clearly shows that. Hout Bunlin is on a motorcycle, not a tuk tuk. They're clearly looking for the wrong guy.

Fancy moto for poor underpaid tuk tuk driver

Equinix wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2019 10:25 am
He should have used MG or WU and go to collect the cash together (sure, more expensive but way more secure)

I think he says that he couldn't collect the money at Western Union because he didn't have a valid visa.

Is that ture? Does Western Union check for valid visas? Why? Have they always done that?

I thought Western Union just collected money from person A and delivered it to person B. Wouldn't a valid passport be sufficient for person B to prove identity and collect the money?

Maybe the reason is that Western Union clerks can't possibly know the difference between a valid foreign passport and a fake foreign passport so they deal only with Cambodian IDs and Cambodian visas.

simon43 wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2019 11:19 am He told his tuk-tuk driver to go and get the money? He didn't go with him to the bank?

What could go wrong?

I think he had his mom send the money to the tuk tuk driver's bank account. So at some point it hits the tuk tuk driver's account and the money "clears" and he can collect it at any time.

What the german could have done was had the mom send it by Western Union to the tuk tuk driver, don't tell the tuk tuk driver the code, then go with the driver to Western Union and have him collect it. Of course, the driver could still collect the money in front of the kid at Western Union and then try do a runner with the money and tell the kid to fuck off, but that's harder.

Cam Nivag wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2019 11:51 am

Equinix wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2019 10:25 am
He should have used MG or WU and go to collect the cash together (sure, more expensive but way more secure)

I think he says that he couldn't collect the money at Western Union because he didn't have a valid visa.

Is that ture? Does Western Union check for valid visas? Why? Have they always done that?

I thought Western Union just collected money from person A and delivered it to person B. Wouldn't a valid passport be sufficient for person B to prove identity and collect the money?

Maybe the reason is that Western Union clerks can't possibly know the difference between a valid foreign passport and a fake foreign passport so they deal only with Cambodian IDs and Cambodian visas.

I agree, there are plenty of folks you see going into WU's especially on Riverside who look unlikely to have a valid Visa. ID in the form of a passport should suffice doubt they check for visas, how else do for example the Nigerians manage to use it so easily considering their often lack of papers......