I was sitting alone at a cafe just off Khao San road drinking a beer and browsing the free wi-fi using my laptop.

Two gentlemen came up and started taking pictures of me using a digital camera.

They then identified themselves as police and asked if they could search my computer bag.

I thought perhaps someone had a computer stolen and they were investigating.  But then, would a Thai policeman really care if a Farang had anything stolen?

I asked for a badge and he showed me a card--written all in Thai--that had a photo of him wearing a uniform.  It did not look official to me.

As he started looking through my bag, I realized that he was looking for copyrighted material--fake DVDs, etc.  I got this impression because at the cafe where I was sitting, you could buy iPods pre-loaded with music.  He was showing me the menu of the music available (which I had looked at an hour earlier).  He only said he was looking for "things which are illegal to have in Thailand.

Before he could finish searching my bag, I started packing it up and leaving, saying I wanted to see a warrant.

He said I didn't know Thai law and that he could search anything he wanted to as long as I was in public.

I finished packing up and left anyway.  He and his companion stopped hassling me and started hassling the Thai staff of the establishment who were selling the iPods.

I don't know if this was a scam or not (I suspect he would have demanded a bribe had he found a fake DVD--a couple of which I had in my room but, thankfully, not on my person).

He doesn't seem to have stolen anything from the bag he searched and, when I put up some resistance, he let me go without a fight.

No harm done--but I still feel like I was fouled.

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