Cops hook their man
Napoj holds up the gold shop
Police last week nabbed Napoj Chaengsaengthong, 26, at a landing for tourist boats in the Andaman Sea province, the suspect having just returned from a three-day fishing trip with friends from Saraburi.
Napoj, who has two convictions for drug possession, had gone into debt with his mates to pay for the trip, including boat hire and equipment. He decided to rob the gold shop to pay them back.
Speaking later at the gold shop where police took the suspect for a crime reconstruction, Pol Maj Gen Peerapong Wongsaman, deputy commander of Police Region 1, said Napoj might have thought he had got away with it, as 10 days had passed since the Sept 27 robbery.
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| Napoj Chaengsaengthong |
CCTV footage shows dramatic scenes from the robbery at the Yaowarat Krungthep gold shop in Bueng Yee Tho, Thanyaburi. He brandishes a BB gun, jumps across the counter, and sweeps up 16 strands of gold worth 2 baht each.
He dashes from the shop in the the Lotus store and initially runs the wrong way down an escalator heading up to the next floor, before leaping across to the companion escalator on the other side. He drops his weapon during his escape, and flees on a motorbike.
The next stage of his getaway initially puzzled police. CCTV vision shows him heading down a road parallel to the motorway, before his motorcycle disappears in the Klong Luang area. Police thought that was odd, so checked the vision in more detail. It shows him pushing his motorcycle into a pickup truck he had parked there in advance. That done, he flees in the truck to complete his getaway.
Enterprising Napoj was busy over the next few days trying to dispose of the gold so he could turn it into cash. He and his mates had spent 70,000 baht for the boat rental, and another 100,000 baht on fishing equipment, which he needed to get back.
Pol Maj Gen Peerapong said Napoj gave two strands of the gold to a friend to sell in the Klong 12 area, raising 50,000 baht. Later he gave another four strands to a mate to sell at the same place, but the shop, no doubt suspecting it was stolen, wasn’t game to accept it, so he sold those strands to another friend, raising 22,000 baht.
On Oct 2, he took two strands of gold and exchanged them at a gold shop in the Klong 4 area for a gold ring which he sold for 27,400 baht, and gave another strand to his wife to sell, raising 52,000 baht. The police probe also showed that before his trip he also fled to Chumphon to sell some of the remaining gold for 50,000 baht.
Pol Maj Gen Peerapong said he also took several strands of gold to be melted down, though he did not specify where. He said when provincial and Thanyaburi police found he had rented the boat for the trip to Phanggna, they liaised with police from Region 8, who were ready to nab him at the landing area when he returned.
By way of a legitimate income, Napoj, he said, buys second-hand cars and does them up. However, lately he had put the proceeds towards a house, which left him short for the fishing trip. Police charged him with the robbery.
Doorway to freedom
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| Kittipong re-enacts the robbery |
A Bangkok man was caught on CCTV fumbling his getaway from a gold shop he robbed in Lat Phrao.
CCTV vision inside the Yaowarat Krungthep gold shop in Nak Niwat Road, soi 17, Lat Phrao, shows the thief struggling with the glass doors, which staff had locked automatically from the inside as the robbery was taking place.
The suspect walked in wearing a mask, asked to see some gold and opened his shirt to show the handle of a gun inside. He took 12 strands of gold worth six baht weight in total.
However, before he could leave, staff had locked the door. The CCTV vision shows him tugging repeatedly at the door until it started to break. He turns to talk to the staff, showing no great concern about his need to flee, though ultimately manages to escape when the door breaks under such brutal treatment.
He fled the store, which is in a two-storey commercial building, and made off on a Honda Wave motorcycle with no registration.
Chokchai police examined CCTV cameras in the area, which led them to their suspect, identified only as Kittipong, a motorcycle hire driver. They nabbed him on Oct 9 at his home in Lat Phrao and seized his motorcycle as evidence.
Kittipong initially denied it, insisting he merely looked like the gold thief, though he admitted his motorcycle also bore a resemblance to the one seen in CCTV vision. Police did not turn up the clothes he wore during the robbery or the gold, but were confident they had caught their man.
By the next day, however, Kittipong changed his mind, admitting he was indeed the gold thief. He said he was deeply in debt and his earnings as a motorcycle hire driver were not enough to cover his repayments.
He had taken some of the stolen gold to pawn for 40,000 baht in cash. Police, who found the rest of it hidden at his house, charged him with theft and damaging property (the door).
No athlete, he
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| Thannapon Muangkaew |
A Songkhla youngster nabbed for selling ya ba fled into a rubber plantation at the back of his property, but quickly ran out of puff.
Police arrested Thannapon Muangkaew, 23, with 45 methamphetamine pills and 8.23 grammes of ice, in tambon Kamphaeng Phet, Rattaphum, after hearing he was selling them in the neighbourhood.
When police arrived he was quick on his feet, fleeing from his home into the plantation at the rear, grabbing a change of clothes as he went. However, police caught him soon after when he ran out of steam.
Mr Thannapon tried to jump across a narrow water channel but stumbled and fell. News images show police handcuffing Mr Thannapon, who is bare-chested and seated on the grass alongside the spare shirt and a pair of jeans he grabbed.
Police took him back to the house and questioned him about his activities. When his mother heard about the arrest, she arrived and offered the young man some motherly advice.
She hugged her son, who burst into tears and apologised. “I warned you many times to quit drugs but you refused to believe me. You regret it now only when it’s too late,” his mother said.
Mr Thannapon’s girlfriend also turned up and shed a tear as she embraced the young man, whom police had seated in a chair.
Border Patrol police, Patrol and Special Operations Division police, and staff from Rattaphum district office in Songkhla took part in the raid. They say they found the drugs in his pockets, and inside the house found drug-taking gear and a set of weighing scales.
Mr Thannapon said he normally hides the drugs in his ceiling. He orders the merchandise from friends, he said, and sells the drugs to locals for 50 baht a pill, and 200 baht a baggie for the ice.
He orders the drugs from an agent. They charged the young man with selling drugs and are expanding their probe to find the others involved.
Police arrested Thannapon Muangkaew, 23, with 45 methamphetamine pills and 8.23 grammes of ice, in tambon Kamphaeng Phet, Rattaphum, after hearing he was selling them in the neighbourhood.
When police arrived he was quick on his feet, fleeing from his home into the plantation at the rear, grabbing a change of clothes as he went. However, police caught him soon after when he ran out of steam.
Mr Thannapon tried to jump across a narrow water channel but stumbled and fell. News images show police handcuffing Mr Thannapon, who is bare-chested and seated on the grass alongside the spare shirt and a pair of jeans he grabbed.
Police took him back to the house and questioned him about his activities. When his mother heard about the arrest, she arrived and offered the young man some motherly advice.
She hugged her son, who burst into tears and apologised. “I warned you many times to quit drugs but you refused to believe me. You regret it now only when it’s too late,” his mother said.
Mr Thannapon’s girlfriend also turned up and shed a tear as she embraced the young man, whom police had seated in a chair.
Border Patrol police, Patrol and Special Operations Division police, and staff from Rattaphum district office in Songkhla took part in the raid. They say they found the drugs in his pockets, and inside the house found drug-taking gear and a set of weighing scales.
Mr Thannapon said he normally hides the drugs in his ceiling. He orders the merchandise from friends, he said, and sells the drugs to locals for 50 baht a pill, and 200 baht a baggie for the ice.
He orders the drugs from an agent. They charged the young man with selling drugs and are expanding their probe to find the others involved.
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