Slasher granny on the loose
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| Grandma Ngamjek |
Lampang students have gone to police after a stubborn grandma in her 90s cut up their motorcycle seats when they parked their vehicles outside her home.
The spate of eccentric vandalism has also prompted her embarrassed son to offer compensation to the damaged parties.
Facebook user GaowGe “Taem” Chayutphat last week posted a clip of the white-haired grandma walking from bike to bike along the road outside Lampang Technical College clutching a long, sharp implement.
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| Granny's handiwork |
The clip was shared on the Lampang City FB site, prompting a torrent of abuse for the Thai-Chinese grandma, known as Ngamjek.
“Here it is in the flesh...don’t go saying I am being cruel (to the grandma),” Taem wrote in his post, referring to the sight of the old woman wielding her weapon in the clip. Students had reported coming back from class to find the seats of their motorcycles slashed or punctured as Ngamjek attacked their bikes.
Media images showed many tens of bikes parked in a row outside her place, even though the area is roped off. Traffic cones had been erected over a 50m stretch. The area along the fence is also painted in red and white telling students to avoid parking there, but they persist nonetheless.
Grandma’s main motivation, however, appears to be economic rather than any problems caused by access to her house.
Grandma Ngamjek, who cheerfully admits to the vandalism, says she is unhappy the students choose to park outside her front fence when they could hire a space in a covered carpark adjoining her place, which she runs as a hotel.
She charges five baht a day, she says, and the fee has never gone up. No matter how many times they come and go during the day, she still charges the same rate. Some motorists plead poverty or failed to pay, but she did not object, she said, justifying her vandalism streak.
The old woman’s family runs a hostel with the car park adjoining it. Grandma Ngamjek, who sits in the carpark minding the vehicles and noting down the registration of the bikes parked there, showed reporters around when they paid a visit.
“She was hard of hearing, so we had to shout,” a reporter from the Manager/ASTV said. “She said she lives alone, her kids having grown up and moved to the provinces.
“She admitted slashing the students’ bikes. She owns up to being hot-tempered but says she gets annoyed when students persist in parking on the road when they could pay to rent space in her car park.
“She’s been looking after students’ motorcycles for ages, she said. Her son used to do it and when he died she took over the business from him,” the reporter added.
“She charges just five baht but they persist in parking outside to avoid her fees so she slashes their seats.”
She said her family had run the hostel for decades and welcomed all comers to the car park. However, many students chose to avoid her car park as budgets were tight.
Asked about student complaints of vandalism, Grandma Ngamjek said if the students want to avoid that fate they should park somewhere else.
“Sometimes there’s so many parked out there it causes problems for passing traffic and for vehicles getting out from my place,” she grumbled.
When asked if she knows the bike owners are demanding compensation, she said they should come and get it.
“I have done the right thing. I am happy to pay damages of five baht a vehicle, and if they come back again they can expect more of the same. I will also ask them why they don’t leave their bikes with me instead,” the Manager/ASTV quoted granny as saying.
By mid-week her red-faced son had offered to pay compensation for the damage. A local repairman would be asked to estimate the cost of replacing the seat coverings on a case-by-case basis, he said. A group of 20 students had turned up to apply for the payments. Others had filed a complaint with police.
Students said they were horrified to come back from class and find their seats slashed. Some wandered from bike to bike, taking clips of the damage.
Grandma, they said, appears to spare no one as every bike they came across had been damaged, many with multiple slash marks or punctures.
“I came back from class after just one hour and found she had damaged my seat,” one complained.
They said they have a fixed amount of money to take to school and don’t want to spend it on parking fees. Apart from that, they argued they were parking on a public road.
The National News Bureau of Thailand reported that by mid-week, many students, while upset at what grandma had done, were now choosing to pay her parking fee of 5 baht a day for peace of mind.
Grandma Ngamjek’s son didn’t say if the repair bill for many tens of bikes would dissuade her from attacking others' property.
Gold theft victim gives chase
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| Naphapen Chusriying shows her injuries |
A gutsy shopkeeper in Ayutthaya is warning Thais about the dangers of wearing gold after a thief posing as a customer yanked a 2 baht-weight gold necklace from her neck, prompting her to give chase.
Naphapen Chusriying, 27, grabbed the thief’s fleeing motorcycle in a Hollywood-like stunt which left her nursing injuries when she was dragged along the road (see left).
She ultimately lost her grip on the rear of the driver’s rear as his bike rounded a turn.
However, Ms Naphapen is less interested in being praised for her bravery than recovering her necklace, which she has worn constantly since buying it before New Year.
Ms Naphapen said the man turned up at her family store in Ronnachai village 9, Klong Chik of the province’s Bang Pa-in district on Aug 9 asking for directions. He was wearing a half-length crash helmet and face mask, obscuring his face.
She told him how to get to a nearby industrial estate, after which the motorcyclist asked for a soft drink. He got off his bike, which he left running.
As she was pouring the drink over a bag of ice, he yanked the necklace, which she bought for 57,000 baht, from her neck, jumped back on his bike and sped away.
Ms Naphapen, quick on her feet, grabbed the seat grip at the rear of the bike. CCTV footage shows her gamely hanging on, falling, and being dragged along on her front as the thief ploughs on.
Ultimately she loses her hold on the bike, and the thief, heading for the Asia Highway, gets away.
“I raced after him hoping to knock over his bike, but it did not fall as I hoped and I ended up being dragged along the road,” she said, nursing injuries to her elbows, shoulder and knees.
“I had to let it go, but ran after it some more and called out to people in the area to help. It was quiet that day and not many came out to see what was happening,” she said.
Ms Naphaphen, an office worker who helps run the family store on her days off, said she wears the necklace constantly but now knows she was taking a risk.
“I would like to warn others to think twice about wearing gold as it could be dangerous. The thief looked to me as if he was out of work...he had a backpack on the bike as if he was heading home to the provinces,” she said.
Her neighbour, shopkeeper Udom Seechoo, 48, said she had just parked her motorbike outside and was tending to customers when she saw the thief running out of Ms Naphapen’s shop.
“I was shocked, and assumed he had stolen my bike, as it is the same colour. I was even more surprised when I saw Naphapen leap on the back. I shouted and helped give chase,” she said.
Ms Udom said she herself wore gold jewellery worth three baht weight in gold until last month, but now keeps it at home after someone warned her against it.
“They said it’s too risky. Gold has gone up in price lately so it encourages thieves,” she said.
Police suspect the bike was also stolen and are checking CCTV footage as they look for the thief.
Testing those nine lives
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| The rescue worker and his kitten |
A slightly built rescue worker put his skinny frame to good use last week in the service of a stricken kitten.
Locals in Khao Niwet of Muang district, Rayong, contacted rescue workers after hearing the kitten, which had fallen in the narrow gap between two buildings, mewing for help.
Its mother, a stray, had given birth to a litter of kittens on the roof and was taking them by the mouth when one fell from its jaws. The mother moved on, apparently uninterested in helping its offspring. The tiny animal was caught in the crevasse all day in the rain with nothing to eat.
By nightfall, the kitten was still stuck, so locals contacted rescue workers.
Wondering how they would reach the animal when the gap was so narrow, they tried inserting a long rod used for catching snakes, but even at 2m it still wasn’t long enough.
Finally, a rescue worker with a skinny frame grabbed a flashlight between his teeth and took fate in his own hands. He squeezed himself sideways to recover the animal and found he was able to reach it.
The young man, whose name was not given, emerged with the kitten, aged about 2-3 weeks, unharmed.
It has a white coat and black patches by its ears. No one put their hand up to raise it, so the rescue worker, thinking it rather cute, volunteered to care for it himself.
Netizens praised the rescue team’s resourcefulness and remarked that in the young man, the kitten had found a “slave” to its bewitching feline ways.
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