The danger of red-plated taxis

My wife, our daughter, two of her granddaughters and I took two taxis from the Suvarnabhumi Airport departures area, so we were not given receipts. When we arrived at our Pathum Wan hotel, I forgot the suitcase in the trunk. The hotel staff immediately put out a call on taxi radio, but to no avail. 

Two days later we visited the airport police station and, after a two-hour search of security-camera footage, we identified the taxi and its number plate. The police told me the taxi was untraceable because it had a red number plate and belonged to a firm that had gone bankrupt. They said I should always take a yellow-plate taxi. But how can a foreign visitor be expected to know the difference? Taxis bearing both kinds of plates ply the streets legally. 

Yet taxis that are neither properly registered nor traceable have far more serious implications than the risk of lost luggage. Three days before we were due to leave Bangkok, the Erawan Shrine bomb exploded just 100 metres from our hotel. If the perpetrators of such attacks use red-plated taxis, how can police track them? It’s time this security loophole was tightened by ensuring proper registration for all Bangkok cabs. 

U Tin Maung Aye