Fact Check: Family in viral video caught stealing from Bali hotel is Indian, not Pakistani

Hyderabad: A video of a family being caught by hotel staff while trying to steal hotel’s property during check out is being widely shared on socials with the claim that it is a Pakistani family.

“Pakistani people are so poor they stealing bath accessories from hotel room in Malaysia. Upon getting caught they even tried to bribe to security staff. Disgusting (sic),” wrote an X user who shared the video.

The post also contained #BoycottMaldives #Boycott_Maldives, which can be an attempt to link the video to the ongoing diplomatic tensions between India and Maldives after controversial remarks were allegedly made by Maldives ministers against prime minister Narendra Modi.

In the viral video, the adults of the family are seen arguing with the hotel staff while the staff open their suitcases revealing hotel property that the family had stolen. They found things such as towels, electronics, decorative pieces and other stuff. A woman from the family could be heard saying sorry to the staff and offering to pay for the objects they had stolen. She even tries to blame her children for unknowingly keeping the hotel stuff in their suitcases.

Does the video show a Pakistani family? Let’s find out.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the video is old and the family in the video is Indian found stealing from a hotel in Bali.

Upon a keyword search, we found a media report on India Today carrying the same video titled ‘Indian family steals accessories from Bali hotel, caught by staff. Viral video shocks internet’ published on July 27, 2019.

According to the report, the video shows a family caught stealing hotel accessories while moving out of the way from a resort in Indonesia’s Bali. The security and housekeeping staff scanned their bags and found hotel belongings like electronics, towels, and decorative pieces in them.

We also found multiple similar reports in Hindustan Times, NDTV, Deccan Herald, Brut and many more.

International media websites such as Coconut Bali and The Straits Times also reported on the incident. In both reports, the family caught stealing were identified as Indians.

According to the media report in The Straits Times, after the items were found in their bags, the family acknowledged their mistake and apologised. They returned everything they took and also paid for the stuff missing from the hotel room. The hotel was identified as The Royal Purnama on Jalan Purnama Beach in Sukawati.

We also found a detailed case statement on the official Facebook handle of Sukawati Police along with photographs dated July 27, 2019.

A part of the statement reads, “At the time of checking out there were some items belonging to the villa that were found missing. Knowing the issue, the villa confirmed it to the guest but the guest didn’t admit first. The manager of housekeeping Wyn Septiana Wardika saw one of the guests throwing the items out of the Villa wall/empty land and after checking out and turned out that the items belonged to the villa. Wyn Septiana Wardika called the Security party to inspect the guest’s belongings. At the time of the inspection of the villa, they found goods belonging to the villa in the suitcase and bag belonging to the guest. After finding those items in their bag, the guest admitted his mistake, apologised and returned the taken items and proposed to replace the loss item that had not been found. At the time of inspection of the items belonging to the guest of Indian citizenship, the villa documented the activity by photographing and videoing it, which was taken by the supervisor housekeeping.”