A former court janitor has been arrested and charged with breaking into the Criminal Court in Bangkok and stealing a gold bracelet and cash worth 24,000 baht.
Senior Bangkok police officers presented Warapong Sornnuam, 37, to the media at Phahon Yothin police station in Bangkok on Wednesday. The suspect was apprehended beneath Bang Bua bridge in Chatuchak district on Tuesday night.
During the press conference, the suspect said he had been drinking and had taken methamphetamine before breaking into the court on the night of Jan 1 to look for money to buy more drugs.
Bangkok police chief Sanit Mahathavorn said Mr Warapong had worked as a janitor at the Appeals Court, in the same compound as the Criminal Court, on Ratchadaphisek Road from 2004 to 2011. He had allegedly stolen money from a donation box at the court and disappeared.
On the night of Jan 1, he parked a motorcycle at an adjacent PTT petrol station and climbed over the court's fence. He broke into the building and searched through several floors of the Criminal Court, taking a gold bracelet and cash from an office on the 9th floor.
Pol Lt Gen Sanit said the man sold the bracelet to a gold shop in Wang Hin area. Police had already retrieved it.
Video by Apichart Jinakul