A phoney policeman who preyed in young people around schools and malls in Bangkok has been arrested, police said on Friday.
Police apprehended Udomsak Srikacha, 40, and seized three mobile phones, clothing he used to pass himself off as a policeman, and a stolen motorcycle.
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Pol Col Chotiwat Luangwilai, chief of Klong Ton police station, said students from Phramaemaree Phrakhanong School, a Catholic school, had complained a man partly dressed in a police uniform confronted them on Wednesday.
The man threatened them and then took their cell phones and some cash.
The students complied because they believed he was a police officer. He rode away on a motorbike which was stolen last year from the parking lot of a shopping mall in Lat Phrao district.
The victims' parents later reported the incident to police.
A 17-year-old pregnant teenager (name withheld) told police that she was approached by a person who appeared to be a policeman while she was riding on a motorcycle with her friend in Phra Khanong district.
The man asked for her driver's licence. When she told him she did not have it with her, he ushered her and her friend away from her bike and told them both to run along Pridi Banomyong road as punishment.
She she later returned to her bike she found that her wallet and mobile phone were gone.
The "policeman" had also disappeared, she said.
Investigators said that they obtained images from a closed circuit camera near where the students were extorted and used them to track down the fake cop.
Mr Udomsak confessed that he had several times stolen from people while posing as a police officer near schools and shopping malls in the metropolitan area of Bangkok.
He said he was unemployed and had been using the money for leisure activities.
Police charged him with theft and transferred him and the evidence to Khlong Ton police station for further proceedings.