To understand how it all came together, let’s look back at the events leading up to the moment when the internet exploded.
Shopping at a Quiet Store. A CCTV Camera! An Unforeseen Plot Twist!
Imagine a small retail apparel shop in Ubud. The warm light casts a serene ambiance in a perfectly folded assortment of jerseys giving one a sense of being away from home in a peaceful Bali setting and not like a Crime Scene.
The shopkeeper is looking through some items and doing a regular stock inventory count. But when he sees items being sold & sells what he sees, he realises that 11 items were missing from the store. 11 items? Not one, nor two… but 11. This must make a shopkeeper very suspicious and shake their head in disbelief as if their store had been robbed.
So what will he do next?
He rolls the store’s CCTV back to see how he could have lost such a large number of items. Like most shopkeepers, he assumed something was probably misplaced or an employee made a mistake by not counting the stock correctly. What he reviewed on the CCTV turned out to be an unexpected plot twist, fit for a “B” movie about thieves.
Three Japanese tourists were visible on a recording, peacefully browsing and talking in Japanese, all while appearing to be regular customers waiting to take advantage of the sale going on at Ubud.
However, when there was a break in the store’s noise, the tourists took advantage & decided to steal the merchandise before the shopkeeper arrived back.
The four guys who went into stealth mode had zero issues finding a way to get their clothes (or crumple them) into bags without making any movement that could be considered panicked or suspicious. It was as though they were now about to pick and choose between what flavour of ice cream they wanted.
Then, joining them was a guy selecting jerseys as though he was buying gifts for friends—except that he wouldn’t be paying for any of them either! Everything was going straight into his bag—no other stops along the way.
As soon as the guys left the shop, they did so in a very laid-back manner.
Once the video was uploaded to social media, however, many Japanese netizens expressed anger at how they were treated by viewers. Comments ranged from saying that they were a complete disgrace and stain on Japan’s normally immaculate image as a travel destination to saying that this was a new thing (as all tourists visiting Japan are seen to be very careful and considerate by nature).
Once the video went viral, it was being discussed all over online forums, news sites, as well as in tourism-related publications. Apparently, bad behaviour travels faster than good behaviour.
The Swimwear Scam That No One Had Ever Heard Of But Was Obviously Important
Before the CCTV saga began, Bali travel officials had begun to raise alarms regarding the spike in the crimes committed by foreign nationals in Bali. Reports from multiple sources indicate that the number of crimes committed against foreigners had increased 16%—going from 194 reported cases of crime against foreigners to 226 in the last 12 months.
City officials in Ubud have identified two primary issues causing this problem:
- The lack of quality tourism.
- The unregulated influx of private homestays.
This indicates that an increasing number of individuals come to the area without going through appropriate channels for verification and spending far more time than what would be normally accepted as appropriate. Some individuals even actually exhibit unlawful behaviors such as stealing small items to committing fraud.
Are you beginning to see a pattern here? There are many incidents like this one that all point back to the same two causes.
Like every other day in the world today, the business of tourism is creating many new ways for people to make money online. There is also the potential for many, if not all, of these new ways to turn viral, thereby increasing awareness of the negative behaviors often associated with tourism—particularly in Ubud.
On any given day in Ubud, here is what would occur:
- A business owner would open his/her business.
- Tourists would walk by.
- Four of them would walk into the store.
- All of the jerseys would still be neatly stacked on display racks with all of the empty shopping bags still fully displayed.
- There would be no social media shaming at that time…
Funny that, months later, this seemingly ‘ordinary’ day became an ‘Internet’ headline.
There is likely one lesson from this entire ‘scrambled’ timeline:
Travel is not an alternative to using good judgement. Ubud is not an amusement park where example and rule enforcement is left at the door. Additionally, cameras will always capture your actions, even in quaint little stores that exude a peaceful atmosphere.
In point of fact, this is further evidence how quickly global news can go from an ordinary moment to infamy by strangers, and that an ordinary “jersey” can be used to embarrass strangers, especially on an international basis.
The last sentence of this story provides you with all of the essential components—the beginning, the end, and all of the important pieces in between.
