Whipping up a special dish
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| Pongsa Theppichai |
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| Ariya ‘Best’ Theppichai |
Pongsa Theppichai, 40, of Pantae in Kuan Kanoon, went before the media after two women, a supposed mother and daughter pair who started living with them in June, fled the family home amid suspicions they laced his parents’ food with ya ba.
Over the course of many months they worked their wiles on the parents, former public servants now in retirement, persuading them to enter various financial arrangements such as taking out life insurance as their psychological condition weakened thanks to the drugs.
The saga ended with the couple fleeing with key documents such as ID cards and house registration papers, which the family suspects they will use to fake their identity.
Forensic tests on the parents’ hair samples, sought by relatives suspicious at the sudden deterioration in the parents’ condition, showed they had been poisoned with ya ba. They are now in treatment to overcome the effects.
Mr Pongsa said his younger brother, Ariya “Best” Theppichai, 30, met a woman called Pemika “Paeng” Seedolchit, 34, on social media.
After they struck up a relationship, Ms Paeng persuaded Mr Best to let her and her “mother”, Laksameekan “Noi” Siritanyong, 61, move in with the rest of the family, so they could look after his parents.
Their own family, the couple said, were struggling, and they were looking for a place to live.
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| Pemika ‘Paeng’ Seedolchit |
Both had always been healthy, with no major ailments. However, within a short time of the pair moving in, the parents’ behaviour started to change. They were hallucinating, depressed, and withdrawn after eating the food made for them by Ms Paeng and Ms Noi. Mr Pongsa said. “Our parents kept to themselves, were suspicious and sad.
They didn’t talk much, and had trouble sleeping. Dad was talking about taking his own life,” he told the media.
Relatives took the parents to Krabi as they waited for Mr Pongsa to join them from Bangkok. Later, in September, they took the couple to Phatthalung Hospital where a doctor said they were suffering from stress resulting from their environment. The doctor prescribed a change in diet and medication.
In November, the guests tried to get the parents to take out insurance, while Ms Pemika tried to talk Mr Best into marrying her. She asked him to register the deed, which would have given her claim on his assets if the union fell apart.
“We also found ya ba at home, and my parents had never meddled in drugs. I took my parents to file a complaint with Kuan Khanoon police about the pair. Paeng had changed her name many times, and we also found ya ba in their Benz.
“I contacted Border Patrol Police in Phatthalung about the drugs; they said the couple were deemed to be psychiatric patients, as they had a history of taking drugs. They also searched our place and found nothing, so took no action.”
Mr Pongsa said he decided to take Ms Paeng to Phatthalung Hospital, to see whether she was in fact mentally ill as claimed. As he was doing so, Ms Noi, the supposed mother, on Aug 3 fled from their place, taking with her key documents such as the parents’ ID cards, public service cards, home registration papers, and his mother’s education diploma.
Relatives took the parents to Krabi as they waited for Mr Pongsa to join them from Bangkok. Later, in September, they took the couple to Phatthalung Hospital where a doctor said they were suffering from stress resulting from their environment. The doctor prescribed a change in diet and medication.
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| Laksameekan ‘Noi’ Siritanyong |
In November, the guests tried to get the parents to take out insurance, while Ms Pemika tried to talk Mr Best into marrying her. She asked him to register the deed, which would have given her claim on his assets if the union fell apart.
“We also found ya ba at home, and my parents had never meddled in drugs. I took my parents to file a complaint with Kuan Khanoon police about the pair. Paeng had changed her name many times, and we also found ya ba in their Benz.
“I contacted Border Patrol Police in Phatthalung about the drugs; they said the couple were deemed to be psychiatric patients, as they had a history of taking drugs. They also searched our place and found nothing, so took no action.”
Mr Pongsa said he decided to take Ms Paeng to Phatthalung Hospital, to see whether she was in fact mentally ill as claimed. As he was doing so, Ms Noi, the supposed mother, on Aug 3 fled from their place, taking with her key documents such as the parents’ ID cards, public service cards, home registration papers, and his mother’s education diploma.
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| Pol Cap Sucheep Theppichai |
“I also asked them to examine my parents’ hair samples for traces of drugs. I spoke to them both about my suspicions that Best’s guests had drugged their food,” he said.
Tests on the hair samples showed they were laced with ya ba. Next, he spoke to his younger brother, who admitted that he and Ms Paeng would take ya ba in their room.
Mr Best managed to contact Ms Paeng, who along with her mother had since fled the family home. “She claimed to know nothing about drugging their food,” he said.
Amarin TV spoke to the parents, who recounted how Ms Paeng and Ms Noi would never eat the food they had prepared for them, which has only heightened their suspicions.
Tests on the hair samples showed they were laced with ya ba. Next, he spoke to his younger brother, who admitted that he and Ms Paeng would take ya ba in their room.
Mr Best managed to contact Ms Paeng, who along with her mother had since fled the family home. “She claimed to know nothing about drugging their food,” he said.
Amarin TV spoke to the parents, who recounted how Ms Paeng and Ms Noi would never eat the food they had prepared for them, which has only heightened their suspicions.
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| Wannee Theppichai |
Mr Pongsa said he suspects the pair have a gang behind them and are conning families as part of an organised swindle. He discovered the pair are not mother and daughter as claimed. Since fleeing their home they have created FB accounts to harass the family.
“The police weren’t very helpful as they regarded it as a family matter. We are lucky we realised in time what was happening or we could have lost everything,” he said, urging Thais to be wary of the types they meet online.
Phatthalung police chief, Pol Maj Gen Tanit Ramdit, said the guests and even Mr Best himself, as drug takers, were regarded by the health system as psychiatric patients, which limited police’s ability to take action. Still, his officers were gathering evidence as they built their case, and are now looking for the pair.
Blackmail with a sting
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| Police search the public toilets |
Bang Yai police say the trader attacked the young woman after demanding cash from her and her boyfriend, whom he secretly filmed moments before having sex in public toilets.
The students, aged 16 and 17, said the trader, a phone salesman, caught them as they were leaving the public toilet block behind BB market in village 6, Sao Thong Hin, of Bang Yai on Nov 29.
He showed them a clip he had taken of them having sex in a cubicle moments before, and demanded 10,000 baht. If they didn’t pay he would post the clip to the internet, he told them.
The youngsters bargained him down to 5,000 baht and the young man went off to an ATM. However, while he was gone the trader, 37, from Thawi Watthana, told the girl to wait with him in his Toyota HRV.
He took advantage of her frightened state to molest her and forced her to perform oral sex, police say. He has not been named to protect the teens.
When the young man returned, they met in front of the toilet block, where he handed over the money, and the trader deleted the remaining clips. Once he had left the young woman told her boyfriend what happened in the car, and they called the police.
Officers say they were able to arrest the suspect as he tried to flee the market. They confiscated his car, 5,000 baht in cash, and his phone, where they found no sign of the clips. They handed over the phone to a forensic expert.
The suspect denied the offences, and hired a lawyer, who told police they have only hearsay evidence. The Nonthaburi court agreed to release him on 320,000 baht bail.
On Nov 30, police inspected the car and toilets for evidence. They were looking for the trader’s semen, to compare with semen stains found on the young woman’s uniform. The suspect faces serious charges, including rape, committing an indecent act on an underage girl by means of deception, blackmail, and illegal detention.
He likes the cops after all
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| Crusading netizen wears punch. |
The public is showing little sympathy for a crusading netizen who criticised the police via Facebook Live but ended up needing their help when a man he inadvertently filmed gave him a punch.
The netizen, part of a FB group called “Nak Rob Dan Tuean” (Unlawful-Checkpoint Warriors), was filming traffic police at their checkpoint on Asian Highway (Bang Pa-in-Nakhon Sawan), in Phrom Buri, Sing Buri early on Dec 2, when he found he needed their help.
The man, who ostentatiously wears a police jacket in FB clips to show he means business, had scouted the area close to the traffic police office in Phrom Buri, looking for CCTV cameras.
Police chief Suwat Chaengyodsuk, he reminded viewers, wants CCTV cameras set up at checkpoints for the sake of greater transparency. However, at this checkpoint he found none, so he decided to wait until officers were free so he could ask.
While he was waiting, his phone camera panned over to a man sitting with an officer, who was evidently giving him a ticket. The man, upset to be filmed without his consent, calls out: “What are you filming, mate?”
He jumps up, swats the phone camera away, and strikes the man. As the phone hits the ground, the netizen calls out “jaeng kwam! jaeng kwam!” meaning he intended filing a complaint.
A voice in the background, probably an officer’s, says: ‘He was filling out a ticket when you started filming...he doesn’t like it!’
A policeman later steps in to clarify matters, saying netizens can film police going about their duty, but not suspects. Checkpoint police refused to accept his complaint, saying he would have to go to the station.
The crusading netizen defended his actions on FB. “You think you can carry on like that?” he wrote, referring to the angry motorist. “We have never had cause to be angry or vengeful with each other before. You could have asked (me to stop filming). You can’t just walk over and hit me.”
However, netizens are less sympathetic, with one FB admin remarking as he shared the clip: “He’s keen on upholding his own rights, but infringes someone else’s.
“What kind of FB live is it where he wears a punch? It’s too light a punishment if anything.” Thais agreed, remarking on the irony of the man criticising police while at the same time being forced to seek their help.
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