Stabbing fails to excite cops, Louknum sorry for kiss pics

Family forced to nab knife man

Game

A father was forced to rally his family into nabbing a man who had gone on a rampage in a Grab car, attacking his son, after police refused to act.

Manop Kluelinglee last week went before the media after his son, Kampee, or “Game”, who drives a Grab car, was stabbed repeatedly by a customer in the Muang Thong area on May 3. He contacted police from three stations asking them to arrest his assailant without success, before the family decided to take the law into their own hands by overcoming the man and taking him in themselves. 

In a drama which has captivated Thais and drawn comparisons with a grisly Hollywood movie, Mr Manop said Game, 27, tricked his attacker into taking him to hospital for treatment, after which he would ask his family to transfer him 200,000 baht to settle a debt. His attacker, Por Siripan, had stabbed him in the Grab car for his valuables.

Por

Por stayed with him in ICU throughout, pretending to be a close friend who had brought him in for care. Doctors called in Game’s family and later transferred Game to Sirindhorn hospital in Prawet.

Mr Manop, who had discovered by then that Por was not a friend but his son’s assailant, frantically called police at three stations asking them to sound their siren and nab the man en route, but they refused.

Mr Manop said his wife was also in the ambulance, and he was worried Por would bring out the knife again and start attacking them.

Police, however, claimed they would have to witness a crime themselves before they could nab someone without a court order or a warrant. They also gave Mr Manop the run-around, telling him to contact one station after another as the incident fell outside their jurisdiction.

Recounting the incident on Facebook, Mr Manop said Por had ordered a Grab car at almost midnight. Seven other drivers cancelled on him, but Game accepted the job and picked him up in the Klong Prapa area.

Before reaching his destination in Muang Thong, he asked to be taken down a quiet soi to pick up a friend. However, Por, sitting in the rear, took this chance to slip behind Game, whip out a fruit knife from a carry bag, and slash at his throat.

Game fought back against his assailant but sustained ear, head, throat and hand wounds, including torn tendons and nerves in four fingers of his right hand. He managed to wrest away the knife and threw it out the window before bounding in the back seat and beating his opponent.

However, Game was starting to lose his strength after heavy blood loss, so tried talking to his attacker, who said he needed help paying off a 200,000 baht debt.

Game gave him his watch and phone first. He persuaded Por to take him to Kasemrad Prachachuen hospital for treatment, after which he would get his family to transfer to Por the money he wanted. He said Por asked if they could drive into a canal on their way and die together, but Game refused, saying he had a son to look after.

Mr Manop said he turned up at the hospital about midnight after being alerted by staff, and asked for his son to be transferred to Sirindhorn hospital, where Game is covered by the 30-baht scheme. He said he assumed Por was a friend of his son’s.

 “He said he tried to get there to help him in time, but couldn’t.” Game’s girlfriend, mother and younger sister also turned up.

Meanwhile, Game was urging Por not to leave him, as if they shared a bond. Really, Game was worried that Por would slip away and no one would be able to catch him.

When the pair first arrived, he leapt out of the car to tell orderlies he had been attacked, and accused Por of being his assailant. However they did not believe him.

Mr Manop, who was waiting outside ICU, said his wife noticed Por was bleeding from his ear (a legacy of his fight with Game), and pulled him aside. Game took this opportunity to whisper to his girlfriend that he was not a friend but an attacker. She contacted Game’s elder brother on Line, who called their younger sister, who finally was able to tell Mr Manop.

Mr Manop said he called the police hotline 191. They told him they would send police from Prachachuen station nearby, but the hospital did not wait, sending Game with his mother and Por in an ambulance to Sirindhorn hospital.

“When police turned up five minutes later, I asked them to go and nab him, but they refused saying they did not witness it so couldn’t act without a warrant,” he said.

“I said, so what if my wife and son get stabbed? She was with Por in the ambulance, which had already left.”

In the ambulance, he said his wife was having to pretend everything was normal even though she, too, knew by then that Por was Game’s attacker.

Mr Manop said he went to Prachachuen station to report what happened, which took until 3am. “Police there told me to get hold of Por’s ID card so they could track him down,” he added.

“I decided to follow the ambulance, and called my elder son to contact the Prawet police, but they asked us to call Undomsuk police. They told us it didn’t happen in front of them, so once again they couldn’t act. I told my son to grab the guy when they arrived at the hospital.” 

When the ambulance arrived, Por was overpowered by male nurses, porters, security and Mr Manop’s family. Images from Mr Manop’s Facebook show the young man seated and cuffed. He has a bruised lip and his shirt is covered in blood, though the blood belongs to Game, a legacy of their fight in the back of the Grab car.

“I called Udomsuk cops to come and get him, they still refused, and insisted they couldn’t cuff him. They also wanted us to take him to where the accident happened, as it wasn’t in their jurisdiction. I was worried they would release him so I said we would sort him out in our own way. In the end they agreed to take him.”

Udomsuk police who turned up to nab Por sent him to Prachachuen station. However, when it transpired the crime took place in Muang Thong, they sent him on to Pakkret station in Nonthaburi, where police charged him with assault causing serious harm and attempted theft. He was also awaiting a psychiatric evaluation, after police noticed he looked unhinged and showed no remorse.

“He also threatened us, saying he was likely to go to jail for a few years, but when he was released he would meet us again,” Mr Manop said.

Commenting on the case, Pol Col Kritsana Pattanacharoen, deputy spokesman of the Royal Thai Police, agreed citizenry shouldn’t have to take the law into their hands to ensure their safety. “If the public is in trouble, they should call the hotline. Police have to accept a complaint, ask what happened, and offer help. It’s a policy of the police commissioner.  If we don’t help, a problem could get worse,” he said.

He said police are wrong to pass the buck of responsibility by citing jurisdiction issues or insisting they would have to witness a crime before acting. 

“Any policeman can deal with a complaint, and as long as it doesn’t breach anyone’s rights they should go ahead. I am coordinating this matter. If I had to fix such a situation myself, how could the public have confidence in the police?” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Manop has thanked everyone involved, including Grab, which is paying Game’s medical costs and compensation.

Actress regrets romantic ties

Louknum, ToomTam

A Lao actress has belatedly apologised for drawing too close to Thai actor Yutthana “ToomTam” Puangklang, a dalliance which sparked claims she had helped break up his three-year relationship with actress Sarucha “Yingying” Pedrode. 

ToomTam and his Lao co-star in the GMM25 TV soap, Dok Khun Siang Kaen, Thidalat “Louknum” Vongsili, took a hammering on social media in March after leaked images emerged of the pair kissing in a nature setting. 

The images appeared on Feb 21, two days after, oddly enough, Louknum posted images of herself making merit with her businessman boyfriend, also from Laos, who in a fit of pique after seeing Louknum’s kiss pics was to strip her images from his Facebook account. 

Even before the pictures emerged, ToomTam denied Louknum, the 2011 Miss Laos, had acted as a third hand breaking up his relationship with Yingying. When the leaked images appeared to seal his fate, he went before the media a second time, again insisting he and Louknum, who was making sporadic visits here to film catch-up scenes for the soap before heading home again, was just a close friend. 

For unfortunate Yingying, however, who says she never suspected a thing, the clincher was text messages to Louknam she found on her boyfriend’s phone. 

In a social media post, Louknam has now broken her silence, agreeing she and ToomTam drew close on the set of the soap. “Those images probably look as if we were way too close. In future I will conduct myself better so this doesn’t happen again,” she said, adding the pair were now just friends.

Media reports asked if she had come forward only now because ToomTam appears to have dumped her in favour of someone else.

They pointed to FB posts of a meal which he appears to have shared with actress Nannapat “Nubtung” Radissirijiradech, who also appeared in the soap.