Suspected bomb turns out to be phone charger

Suspected bomb turns out to be phone charger

Police question the couple who owned the smartphones left in a plastic bag containing a charging unit at Suvarnabhumi airport. (Photo by Sutthiwit Chayutvoraken)
Police question the couple who owned the smartphones left in a plastic bag containing a charging unit at Suvarnabhumi airport. (Photo by Sutthiwit Chayutvoraken)

SAMUT PRAKAN: A suspicious package found at Suvarnabhumi airport this week turned out to be an improvised mobile-phone charger for a taxi-app driver waiting to serve customers.

Airport security officials blocked traffic on a road in front of the Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel on Thursday for more than half an hour after they found the bag under a tree.

Bomb disposal teams and sniffer dogs were deployed but what they found was a plastic bag containing a 1.25-litre drinking water bottle cut on one side. Two smartphones with cables linked to a battery charger were inside the bottle.

On Saturday, police, airport security officials and soldiers brought the couple who owned the phones for questioning at the Suvarnabhumi police station.

Sutham Chantarasena and his wife, Saovalak Innang, both 38, were brought from their house in Lat Krabang district in Bangkok after investigators tracked them down from the SIM cards in the phones and from closed-circuit cameras in the area.

Mrs Saovalak confessed to owning the phones and leaving them at the scene on Thursday evening.

She said she drove a taxi linked to a mobile application. On that day, she queued up on the app to serve customers at the airport.

When a driver books a place in a queue at a certain location, he or she must keep the app open at all times and may not leave the area. If the app no longer detects the phone, the driver's name will be removed, she explained.

Since her phone batteries were running low, she charged them using a power bank. She then put them inside a plastic bottle and a bag in case it rained. After that, she and her husband went off to find something to eat.

She did not expect a customer to call so soon, triggering a pulsing tone at a time when a security official happened to be walking past the spot where the phones were left. He then alerted airport security.

Mrs Saovalak apologised to airport officials and the public for causing a false alarm.

Pol Maj Gen Tahmmanoon Traitippaypong, commander of the Sumut Prakan provincial police, said he believed Mrs Saovalak was telling the truth.

The couple were charged with violating the 1992 Act to Maintain Cleanliness and Good Order, which outlaws leaving things in public places, with a fine of up to 2,000 baht.

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