This is my opinion on TS (Joshua Harley), why I decided to contact him, and what happened. At approximately 3:45pm-ish (Bangkok time - Los Angeles time would be 12:45am) I was on the BTS Skytrain Sukhumvit Line returning from the immigration satellite office in northwestern Bangkok As I normally do, I opened the Sherdog forum to catch up on mma news. As an aside, the only forum I go on (mma or otherwise) is Sherdog because 1) mma is the only sport I watch, and 2) you guys are not only entertaining as fk, but always provide good mma info.
The first thread that caught my eye was Joshua’s ***SOS HELP ME IMMEDIATELY*** post. I read his post, and what immediately caught my attention was his location. As I was reading it, the skytrain happened to be approaching Nana Station (the area Joshua stated he was at). I thought to myself, what are the chances of that. There were only two pages so far on his post, so my thought was his posting was relatively current.
I got off at my stop (2 stops from Nana), and messaged my friend in Los Angeles (see photo). I told him no way I’m going to get involved with this sh#t even though I am close. I walked back to my hotel and read a few more pages to see what my fellow Sherbros were doing. Many of you were sending emails to the Canadian embassy and contacting whoever you could to help.
I settled in and I thought about the situation. My gut said the Thai mafia isn’t going to kill him…at least not today. I thought he may in fact have gotten involved with the wrong people, and be in some sort of trouble though. But based on prior experience, what I believed was Joshua was having some type of drug triggered paranoia and/or maybe a schizophrenic type episode (I’m not sure on the exact medical verbiage so my apologies in regards to mental illness).
I thought to myself, the guy definitely needs some type of help. I’ll swing by the hotel, and assess it from the outside. If it seems relatively safe, I’ll make sure he doesn’t need medical help. If anything gets remotely sketchy, I’ll back out and call the police. That was my basic plan.
Around 5pm-ish I headed out to Soi 4 (about a 30 minute walk from my location). When I got relatively close, I typed “White Orchid Inn) on Google Maps. A location near Soi 7 popped up (nothing on Soi 4). In the back of my mind the fact (or so I thought at the time) Joshua got his location wrong further solidify my opinion Joshua was having a paranoia/mental/episode. During this time,
@GearSolidMetal (a Sherbro) was conversing with Joshua online and trying to help Joshua.
I got to where Google Maps was directing me, but there was no White Orchid Inn. There was a hotel there, but it was called Syama. The business to the right of Syama is a massage parlor. A ladyboy and a lady were sitting outside waiting for customers. They could see I looked perplexed, and asked me what I was looking for. I showed them the map with White Orchid Inn. The ladyboy looked at the map, and after trying to figure it out, he told me it’s probably on Soi 7.
I walked around Soi 7 and the surrounding area, but no luck. Soi 7 is an area full of bars, billiards, and prostitutes. I ended up back at Syama. The ladyboy and lady both asked me to show them the map again. After doing some searches in Thai, they concluded the White Orchid Inn had renamed to Syama.
I thanked them for their help, and reported to you guys that this whole thing was probably a load of sh#t. Just in case, I headed over to Soi 4 (the street Joshua gave as his location) to see if there was a White Orchid Inn that wasn’t popping up on Google Maps. Soi 4 is a few minutes from Soi 7. I did not see a White Orchid Inn.
As I was getting ready to leave, a Sherbro posted a link to a White Orchid Inn on Agoda (a hotel booking website) and asked me “What about here?” The location was about a minute from me, so I walked over…and there it was.
The location is down a small alley off of Soi 4. I looked down the alley, and it seemed quiet. There were two older ladies sitting by the White Orchid Inn chatting and a kitty cat chilling in front. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I stepped inside the small front lobby area. There was a guy with glasses and longer than average hair for a guy sitting at the front desk. He was looking at something on his phone and barely paid any attention to me walking in. I did not see anyone else. I asked him, “Is Joshua Harley here?” Without skipping a beat, he said “202.” Based on the way he said “202” I surmised this guy speaks English pretty well.
I thanked him and walked back out. At this point I let you guys know Joshua was where he said he was. I thought of a few options, and what I would do in case of each option.
I walked around the perimeter of the place again, this time with more attention to detail since Joshua’s story about his location had some credibility now. Again, nothing noteworthy that caught my eye.
I walked back in, and asked the front desk guy “Can you call up to Joshua and have him come down? I just want to make sure he’s ok.” Again, without skipping a beat or looking up from his phone, the guys said something to the effect of “Up to you to go see him.”
Okay, plan B. I did a quick assessment of the first floor (not hard to do since it was so small), and then walked up the small stairwell to the 2nd floor. To the left of the stairwell exit on the second floor were a couple rooms, and a couple rooms to the right of the exit. Joshua’s room was to the right of the stairwell exit. It is a tiny hotel. I paused and listened. It was quiet.
I knocked on the door and retreated into the stairwell to get some distance and cover as well as an avenue of escape. No answer. I knocked again and said, “Joshua, you in there? Are you okay?” I could hear some movement.
I knocked a third time and asked if he was okay again. I could hear more movement. A Thai woman opened the door. From what I recall, she was wearing a brown casual dress. She looked somewhat disheveled and older. Her demeanor was calm, and nonchalant. Nothing that alerted me. I asked her if Joshua was there. She looked over her shoulder and called over to Joshua and told him someone was here for him. I could hear movement, and a guy walked to the doorway. He was wearing white shorts or boxers and had no shirt on. The first thing I noticed was he had tattoos on his arms. The reason the arms got my attention is I immediately directed my attention to his hands when he came to the doorway. If anything will get you, it’s the hands. He also seemed disheveled and half awake. I asked him if he was Joshua and if he was okay. He said, “Yeah….for now. Who are you?” I told him he posted a help message on Sherdog and had people worried. I asked him, “For now? What do you mean? Are you okay?” He responded, “Yeah…yeah, I’m okay.” I said, “Are you sure? You need anything?” He responded, “No, I’m good. I’m going to shower and get going,” He was somewhat mumbling and seemed half awake. I told him take care and then left.
There were no apparent signs he was being held against his will. He didn’t seem afraid or in need of anything urgent. There were no signs of anything suspicious at the hotel. He didn’t seem to need medical attention. He answered all my questions coherently enough for me to be satisfied he was okay. And so I left. My plan was if he seemed disoriented I was going to call for EMS, and if anything seemed remotely dangerous I was going to call LE.
This is just my opinion…. I’ve seen people in the past use drugs, and the drugs trigger some type of paranoia. The paranoia can last long after the drugs wear off. I don’t know if the drugs can act as a catalyst to trigger mental illness like paranoia or schizophrenia, but it seems that way. The cases I’ve seen all have the same elements… people are doing things to set you up, people are after you to harm you or kill you, people are watching you….
I hope Joshua gets some help. From what I’ve read from other posters, he seems like a decent dude who just got involved with bad people and bad substances. It was good to see many Sherbros contacting whoever they could to help someone in potential danger. Stay safe Sherbros. Crazy world we live in. Thank goodness there are people willing to duke it out in a cage to give us temporary reprieve from the craziness of life.
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