Two Red Deer siblings are warning travellers to always be on their guard after they say their drinks were spiked with drugs on Thailand’s largest resort island last week.
Mariah, 20, and Justin Brusatore, 22, say they were at a closed tourist party at a club on Phuket island when they accepted a drink from another traveller and instantly lost consciousness.
The two siblings say the last thing they remembered about that night was sipping a daiquiri. The next morning, Mariah woke up feeling groggy and confused in a strange hotel room with another traveller whom she had met the day before.
Justin woke up with bruised arms and scraped knees in a rundown building near an alley.
Justin was robbed of his bank cards and about $300 in cash. He said the incident could have been a lot worse.
“I could have lost everything and more importantly, I could have lost my sister,” said Justin. “That’s more important to me than myself.”
The brother and sister reunited at their hotel that same morning.
The next day, they called their father in Red Deer and he advised them to hop on a plane and return to Canada.
On Saturday, they arrived back in Red Deer after being examined and tested for STDs as a precaution at a hospital in Calgary.
They did not contact the Thai police or the Canadian police because they felt they could not pinpoint the person who may have spiked their drinks.
Now they are cautioning other travellers to learn from their mishap.
“You always have to be on your guard after you feel you are comfortable and safe,” said Mariah.
“Maybe that is not enough these days. Watch your drinks as they get poured and don’t accept drinks from strangers. . . . It can happen anywhere.”
The siblings were travelling in Asia after spending four months in Australia working at a vineyard. They decided to go to Thailand on a whim early last week after their tourist visa for Indonesia expired. They are both students at the University of Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, B.C.
crhyno@www.reddeeradvocate.com