Sore loser; red-faced thief; prank backfires; abbot's boast

No way to leave

Apichet Kaenpho

A Samut Prakan man married to his wife for 20 years attacked her repeatedly with a sharpened screwdriver rather than let her leave him.

Bang Kaeo police nabbed Apichet Kaenpho, 43, after he stabbed his ex-wife, Pensri, 38, in the carpark of a food hall on Theppharat Road in Bang Phli.

CCTV cameras captured the attack in which Pensri is seen approaching Mr Apichet, who had tracked her down at work and was lingering in the carpark.

The pair start arguing after a few seconds before Mr Apichet lunges for her neck. She tries to flee but he follows, reaches into his bag and pulls out a sharpened screwdriver.

He stabs her repeatedly with the 12cm screwdriver, chasing her to an area outside the camera’s range, as three women come to her aid. A passing car starts beeping its horn to deter him, as a male security guard, alerted by the screaming women, heads towards the scene.

The sharpened screwdriver

Within seconds, Mr Apichet can be heard saying he was prepared to surrender. The security guard and locals held him until police arrived.

A rescue crew treated Pensri at the scene before sending her to hospital, where news reports said she needed 13 stitches to wounds to her neck, shoulders, back and chest. She is now out of danger.

Talking to police, Mr Apichet said the pair had been married 20 years and have two children, but his wife left him two months ago. When he found out where she was working he tracked her down, though he insists he simply wanted to discuss dividing up their assets.

However, Pensri refused to talk to him and walked away, so he attacked her. He suspected she was seeing someone else, which he could not accept.

Pensri’s aunt, Kanha, who works with the victim at a traditional Thai massage shop as a cleaner, said she saw Mr Apichet had turned up asking where he could find his ex-wife, so she alerted her niece.

Pensri went out to meet him in the carpark and he started attacking her. Kanha said her niece left the man because he would get drunk and beat her up.

“I had her work with me for the sake of her safety,” she said. The police were contemplating charges at press time.

Theft caught in HD

Chinnakorn Kumaneepakorn

A young man from Loei is regretting his turn as an opportunistic car-parts thief as his exploits were captured on an observer’s smart phone in a clip which went viral.

Chinnakorn Kumaneepakorn, 26, stole the rear-end light panels from an Isuzu pickup as it was parked at Pluak Daeng Hospital in Rayong on Jan 19.

Mr Chinnakorn, who was visiting the hospital to see the doctor, has the same model of Isuzu truck but suffered a broken tail-light on the way there. Seeing another Isuzu in the carpark, he decided to steal its rear-light panels rather than take his own vehicle in for repairs.

He was about to travel to his home province of Loei and knew he would need his lights in working order before he set off. A new set of lights would have set him back 5,000 baht, he told police later.

A good samaritan in the carpark, however, appears to have noticed that he was up to no good, despite Mr Chinnakorn’s efforts to deflect attention.

First, the clip captures him walking around with his phone to one ear while surreptitiously scouting the scene. Then, when he is sure no one is nearby, he calmly undoes the tailgate of the target vehicle, whips out a screwdriver, unscrews the light panels, and takes them back to his own pickup.

He places them in the back seat and drives away, unaware that his every action had been caught on camera.

The clip, which went viral, was aired by mainstream media. TV news presenters marvelled at its clarity, with one telling viewers enthusiastically they were witnessing “theft in HD”.

The vehicle’s owner, Jirasak Wongsida, complained to police about the theft of his tail-lights. He handed over the clip, which the good samaritan had given him.

Police tracked down Mr Chinnakorn via his Isuzu plate number, also captured in the clip, and with the aid of nearby CCTV cameras.

They arrested him at his home in Loei, where a contrite Mr Chinnakorn said he had seen the clip of his own misdeeds — as had his friends, his parents, and even his boss.

Mr Chinnakorn, who worked at a factory in an industrial estate in Pluak Daeng, said his boss sacked him. “The theft really wasn’t worth it, given what followed,” he admitted ruefully to police, who will charge him with the theft.

She didn’t get the joke

Bansing

A Trat man who asked his drinking mate if he could harass his wife for fun is facing police charges after the prank backfired.

Muang police nabbed Weerapol, 42, after allegedly molesting the woman, “A”, 35, in her bedroom as her boyfriend, Bansing, 39, sat outside, indifferent to her plight.

The men were drinking at Bansing’s rowhouse when Weerapol asked if he could play a prank on his wife, entering her bedroom and pretending to have his way with her.

A, who had just showered and gone to bed, said she woke to find Weerapol in her room with his trousers down. As she screamed for help, he held his hands around her throat and told her to keep quiet.

Weerapol

The ruckus attracted the attention of a neighbour, Nattaporn, 25, who said she entered the bedroom in time to find Weerapol pulling up his trousers.

“A was calling for her husband. He was there but didn’t do a thing to help,” she told reporters.

According to A, far from coming to her aid, her husband closed the bedroom door when she started to scream.

Weerapol denied taking down his trousers, saying A kicked him and they fell down. He said he grabbed her by the throat to tell her to keep the noise down, but did not mean to use force.

A, holding a duvet close to her body, appeared in shock and was crying as she recounted what happened.

Bansing still insists his friend meant no harm, and his wife was over-reacting. Police took both men in for questioning.

Just passing on the word

Phra Saen

The drugs found in the abbot’s room.

An abbot of a temple in Buri Ram has shrugged off his arrest for taking illicit drugs, saying he will re-enter the monkhood once he has served his time.

Police Region 3 officers and staff from the Office of the Narcotics Control Board nabbed Phra Saen, 62, abbot of Wat Nong Ta Yao in Lahan Sai district, as part of the government’s quick-win drugs suppression policy.

Phra Saen was found with nine ya ba tablets. However, he insisted the drugs were “old” and that he had bought them from a group of teens, who sold them for 100 baht for five pills.

The abbot said he took the pills for educational purposes, so he could preach to locals about the danger of drugs. “When I have served my punishment I will quit drugs for sure and then enter the monkhood again,” he said optimistically.

Ploy, a local, said temple faithful had long suspected the elderly abbot was taking drugs.

“No one likes him much, but we have to visit the temple to make merit. He has been at the temple for 10 years,” she said. No word was to hand on what charges he will face or when he will be defrocked.