As vehicle theft rings grow more sophisticated, surveillance technology is adding more teeth to the Anti-Vehicle Theft Centre in its efforts to catch car thieves and recover stolen vehicles.
Using images from several surveillance cameras, the Anti-Vehicle Theft Centre recently tracked a car which had been reported stolen from the central province of Lop Buri and taken to Chumphon in the South.
Police arrested the suspected car thief in less than three days.
On June 27, an owner of a Toyota pickup truck left his vehicle in a hypermarket carpark before going shopping. When he returned to the carpark, his pickup was gone.
The victim alerted police at Muang Lop Buri police station and he provided all the details police needed to track down the truck.
The officers on duty filed the complaint, fed the vehicle's details into the Anti-Vehicle Crime Centre's database and then called the centre's 1192 hotline.
The chase began when the centre's vehicle theft database fed the information into the Narcotics Suppression Bureau's surveillance camera system.
The surveillance network was then used to track the vehicle's movement and alerted authorities when a match was identified.
On June 29, the Narcotics Suppression Bureau's system made a "hit" and notified authorities that the marked vehicle had passed through a checkpoint in Prachuap Khiri Khan's Kui Buri district.
Shortly afterward, officers at a checkpoint in Chumphon's Pathiu district stopped the suspected vehicle and arrested Pantakorn Inkaew, 46, a former policeman attached to the Crime Suppression Division (CSD).
The suspect, who had been sacked from the CSD for extortion and illegal detention in 2000, denied stealing the pickup. He claimed he was paid 6,000 baht to deliver it to Songkhla's Hat Yai district.
A source from the Narcotics Suppression Bureau's "lost car team" said the surveillance technology is extraordinary.
It helps the bureau combat drug trafficking and contributes vastly to the Anti-Vehicle Theft Centre's efforts to recover stolen vehicles.
The technology is designed to capture licence plates of vehicles passing through any of the bureau's 311 checkpoints and helps identify suspect vehicles.
The source declined to discuss the details of the surveillance technology, but noted the Royal Thai Police Office is looking to put in place more of the technology.
Pol Gen Somyos Pumpanmung, head of the Anti-Vehicle Crime Centre, said reporting a stolen car is much easier these days. The sooner an alert is posted, the greater the chance of the car being tracked and recovered. He said victims of stolen cars can alert 1192 before filing a complaint with local police.
The hotline team is on call 24/7 and will verify the complainant's information to screen prank calls before loading the stolen vehicle information into the database.
The information is then shared with traffic radio stations and emergency and rescue agencies which also have their own extensive networks. They will report back to the lost-car team as soon as they find anything suspicious.
The centre's hotline and its website, www.lostcar.go.th, is yet another channel to help victims of car theft and potential victims.
"It's as if we have the police present all over the place," he said.
He said the centre's website and Facebook page can help second-hand buyers protect themselves from purchasing stolen goods.
To check a car, a potential buyer can visit the lost-car team site and type in the licence plate number or the engine number of the car to check if the vehicle has been reported stolen.
The lost-car Facebook page has recorded more than 12,000 "likes" and is an active information sharing platform.
Pol Gen Somyos said the online community can help the police fight car theft.
The public is being urged to report sightings or photos of suspected stolen cars to the centre via the lost-car Facebook and website.
"Think of it as a game. Instead of playing computer games, one can be part of a car theft detective work," he said. "We offer a 5,000-baht cash reward for anyone with clues leading to an arrest of a suspect or the return of a stolen car," Pol Gen Somyos added.
Contact Crime Track: crimetrack@bangkokpost.co.th