If the shoe fits, flashing the goods, no minor matter

If the shoe fits, flashing the goods, no minor matter

Putting his foot in it

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE

Bangkok hotel worker Chirawut Limpanatpaisan is taking legal action against a Facebook user who claimed he liked to take furtive pictures of women's underwear on the skytrain.

Chirawut Limpanatpaisan.

Mr Chirawut, 28, complained to Bang Na police last week after Facebook user Jakaphet Paungmala, 29, published pictures of him standing in the skytrain as he was making his way home from work.

In an accompanying message, he claimed he had concealed a tiny camera in the toe of his left shoe for prying up women's skirts.

Mr Chirawut denies it, saying he was just an innocent commuter making his way home from work.

In the images, Mr Chirawut has his head down, playing on his smartphone. The toe of his left shoe has a small hole in it, which Mr Jakaphet and his friends, who were sitting opposite, took to be a concealed camera.

They took his picture furtively but did not confront him with their suspicions.

"I don't know who he is, but he's high-tech. He has a miniature camera hidden in the toe of the shoe on his left foot. Women wearing short skirts in the BTS On Nut area, beware," Mr Jakaphet wrote.

In the images, Mr Chirawut's face can be seen clearly. Close-up images of his scuffed, worn shoes also appear.

Opening up to the media last week, Mr Chirawut said he first learned of the Facebook claims about him when a friend called.

"I was in shock. My first reaction was to figure how to correct the reports."

He says the suspects the group took the images in the early evening of Dec 20.

The images were shared widely on social media, webboards such as pantip.com and drama.addict, and the mainstream media.

Mr Chirawut, who works at a hotel in Sukhumvit, said the saga damaged his reputation. "I now travel to work in a taxi as I do not dare take the skytrain, in case someone who has seen the reports recognises me," he said.

He contacted websites which ran the claims, identifying himself as the man in the pictures and telling them he had been wrongly accused. Most were happy to take down the images.

Mr Chirawut said he would like the police complaint to serve as an example to netizens to be more careful before sharing unproven claims on social media. "Why didn't the people who took my picture ask me if I was concealing a camera?" he asked.

Mr Jakaphet, who has taken a hammering on social media since Mr Chirawut came forward to assert his innocence, has offered a qualified apology. He said he did not intend to defame anyone, and meant no harm to Mr Chirawut.

"I accept I have no evidence that he took pictures up women's skirts, or had any intention of doing so, as he was standing next to a man at the time," he admitted.

He said Mr Chirawut walked away promptly when he realised the group was taking his picture. As he left the train, he gave them an unpleasant look.

Mr Chirawut, who has published his own close-up images of the shoes he wore that night, said the hole in his left shoe was caused by a spark from a welding torch.

"I was fixing an air-con machine at work when a spark flew off the torch and burned a hole in my shoe," he said. "I admit my shoes look awful, but I rarely change shoes until they are so bad I can no longer wear them."

Mr Jakaphet said they still looked suspicious to him, as a spark should leave a round hole, not a square-shaped one that appears on the shoe. Police are looking into the complaint.

Kanya 'Tarn' Rattanapetch and inset, Patcharapa 'Aum' Chaichuea.

Snapped up real quick

Getting out of a car is never flattering for a woman, says actress Kanya "Tarn" Rattanapetch, denying she was imitating an A-list star who unwittingly showed her crotch as she alighted from a vehicle a few years ago.

Tarn took a battering on social media last week as superstar Patcharapa "Aum" Chaichuea's fans criticised a revealing shot in which Tarn is pictured getting out of her black BMW.

They accuse her of seeking publicity by imitating Aum, who like Tarn was caught in an unflattering pose parting her legs.

Tarn, who is wearing a flimsy pair of mini cotton shorts, is about to climb out of the driver's seat and has thrown her left leg out of the vehicle. Aum's fans say the image reminds them of a similar pose, caught by a quick-witted cameraman in 2010, when Aum was getting out of a sports car for an industry event.

As Aum's legs part, the camera catches an image of her black underwear as she tries to lift herself out of the vehicle. The picture was widely published in the media.

Asked about the sighting at the time, Aum agreed it didn't look good.

"I am not worried about the sighting. However, I do have to wonder about the speed of camera lenses these days. I move fast, and yet the camera manages to catch everything," she said.

Aum's fans, while aware the pictures do neither actress any favours, have accused Tarn of trying to court popularity by imitating her.

"She's been acting for years, but has yet to find fame. She started in movies but has now been relegated to acting in early evening soaps," one sniffed.

Tarn denies imitating Aum, saying she has nothing to offer which could compare to the superstar's beauty.

"I am my own person, and we have our own styles. People claim I like to imitate her, but it's not true. The images look similar, but it's just a coincidence.

"All women have to strike that awkward pose to get out of a vehicle. I can't see anything strange about it," she said.

On the internet, one fan said all women find it a struggle to get out of a car without parting their legs and showing too much.

"Of course we have to get out of the car one leg at a time. No one could possibly keep herself safe from scrutiny by keeping both legs closed and throwing both out the car simultaneously!" she said.

"If anyone should get a drubbing it's the prying photographer."

Bongkot 'Tak' Khongmalai, Boonchai Bencharongkuland inset, Aom Kedsnee.

Aom lays complaint

TV host Aom Kedsnee has laid a police complaint after a netizen accused her of seeing billionaire Dtac founder Boonchai Bencharongkul behind his actress wife's back.

Aom last week complained to Pracha Cheun police after a netizen published pictures of her on an aircraft with Mr Boonchai, who she knows.

The author of the post claims Aom is Mr Boonchai's minor wife.

Earlier this month, Mr Boonchai's legal wife, actress Bongkot "Tak" Khongmalai, complained on social media that her husband had found a secret admirer.

The voluptuous actress said a friend recently sent her the Facebook remarks of a young woman who refers to her husband admiringly. The woman claims she has to wait until midnight every night before she can call Mr Boonchai safely so they can talk without Tak's knowledge.

Tak said she was initially suspicious of Mr Boonchai, and, feeling put out, left a comment on social media comparing herself to a minor wife.

"Have you ever felt like a minor wife, even though you are legally married?" Tak wrote.

Tak said she promptly deleted the comment, after she questioned her husband about the matter and he was able to put her mind at rest.

Aom's name has never been mentioned in Tak's posts, but a netizen now claims he has found evidence that Aom and Mr Boonchai are seeing each other.

Aom, who denies having anything to do with Tak's family, says she has asked police to pursue the man who made the claims.

Keen to undo the damage she has done, Tak has published a clip of her and her husband in which the two look as close as ever.

She jokingly asks Mr Boonchai, who is at the wheel of his car as the two head out together, if he has been unfaithful.

He denies it. "With a wife as pretty and sexy as this?" he says to the camera.

"Everyone up and down the country is envious," he said.

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