Kiwi loses passports and cash in Ukraine
He went to the Ukraine looking for love but instead lost $18K. Andrea Vance reports.
A Kiwi claims he was drugged and robbed in Ukraine – but a New Zealand trade envoy came to his rescue, buying back his passports.
Marko Westerink, 48, was in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, looking for a girlfriend because he says: ‘‘Russian women are quite beautiful. I don’t know if Kiwi girls are any good.’’
But instead of finding love, he woke up in a metro station in a ‘‘zombie-like’’ state and missing his bumbag containing money, bank cards and both his New Zealand and Dutch passports.
He believes his orange juice was spiked, and while he was incapacitated, thieves withdrew $18,000 from his bank account.
After local police failed to help, Westerink says he was stranded, penniless and sleeping in a park, until New Zealand’s honorary consul Mark Wright came to his rescue.
Honorary consul are not professional diplomats, and often combine their role with commercial activities. The nearest Kiwi embassy to the Ukraine is in Poland.
Two days after he was robbed, Westerink received an email, in Cyrillic script, with a photo of his passports, it was entitled: ‘‘Passport Found’’. It went on to say ‘‘Hello, we found your passport! . . . We can arrange a meeting.’’ He believes they got his contact details from business cards he had been carrying.
‘‘Mark Wright told me he was to deal with the situation, and I left it in his hands. He organised the return of the passport with the ‘finder’ who wanted payment in return. ‘‘It cost 1000 Ukrainian hryvnia [about $55) to get the passports back. Without him I’d still be in Ukraine with no money.’’
Westerink’s curious story began at 9.30pm on September 2, outside the city’s Dream Palace Hostel. He was approached by a man asking for directions to the city.
Westerink decided to walk with him to show him the way. On the way, he says they helped put out a car engine fire, and the mysterious man convinced him to share a meal of borscht.
He believes the man spiked while Westerink was distracted his juice browsing the internet on his phone. ‘‘I was just there looking for girls on my phone, I was overseas interested in girls, not boys, so I wasn’t paying much notice to him.
‘‘I noticed the orange was a bit sweeter than normal. We left the restaurant and that’s the last thing I remember.’’
The North Canterbury man came to in a metro station, with his belongings missing. In his wallet was a stranger’s credit card.
‘‘I was feeling very dazed and disorientated,’’ he said. ‘‘I was walking like a zombie. I remember hardly anything.’’
While he was gone, the hostel rented out his room and he had no way to pay for another.
‘‘I slept in the park for a couple of nights,’’ he said. ‘‘I got a mate to send me money, but without a passport I couldn’t get it out of the Western Union.’’
Police kept him waiting for three hours at a station, and then sent him to the Australian embassy, where he was directed to Wright.
He was also desperately trying to get hold of BNZ to cancel his missing cards. On his return to New Zealand, he discovered $16,500 of spending on his cards – all on the night after the robbery. Just over $9000 was spent in Kiev supermarkets and $2156 was withdrawn from ATMs.
The BNZ has told the money.
‘‘I can confirm BNZ is working with Mr Westerink, and there’s an ongoing investigation about the credit card transactions in Kiev,’’ a spokeswoman said.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs didn’t answer questions about how Mr Wright obtained the passport but in a written statement said: ‘‘The New Zealand Embassy in Warsaw, which is accredited to the Ukraine, provided consular assistance to Mr Westerink.
‘‘This included advice and assistance from the Honorary Consul in the Ukraine . . . For privacy reasons, we are unable to provide detailed information on Mr Westerink’s case or the assistance provided. Generally speaking, the provision of consular assistance includes informing people of the options available so that they may make their own decisions on next steps.’’
MFAT’s travel advice for the city says fraud is common in Ukraine and recommends New Zealanders take extra care when using credit cards and ATMs.
Wright didn’t respond to a request comment.
Neither did the man who claimed had found Westerink’s passports.
I noticed the orange was a bit sweeter than normal. We left the restaurant and that’s the last thing I remember.
him it won’t reimburse for he