Thief has second thoughts
A Trang businesswoman wants police to have another go at finding the mastermind behind an unusual robbery of her shop in which the reluctant thief seemed more interested in chatting than taking anything.
Onuma 'Kung' Chumcheun
Onuma "Kung" Chumcheun, 41, owner of Kung Mobile, in Thap Thiang of Muang district, was confronted by the armed robber after he broke in early on Dec 14. However, rather than ransacking the place or taking armfuls of phones, he made his way to her bedroom and started quizzing her.
The burglar, Worawat Suthichana, 25, had let himself in through the roof at the rear and used a knife to prise open a sliding glass door to gain entry to her shop. A battery of more than 10 CCTV cameras recorded his moves. Inside the shop, he found a broom and pushed away the cameras so they could not record his face.
Worawat Suthichana
Mr Worawat, who was bare-footed and wearing shorts, also draped a red jacket over his head to help disguise his appearance. Although the jacket slipped at one point, revealing his identity to the cameras, he did not seek to disable the devices, which were also equipped with sound.
They captured his exchange with Ms Kung, which started as soon as he opened the door to her bedroom which she shares with her seven-year-old son.
Ms Kung sat up immediately from her mattress on the floor but kept her cool as the exchange began, almost as casually as if she was chatting to a customer in her shop.
He asked: "Have you ever owed debts to anyone? Have you ever had problems with anyone?"
Ms Kung said no in both cases, though she added she had once owed a debt to a local bank.
In a candid moment, the burglar said: "He had me come here. I really don't want to do it. P', you are a good person. I called you many times, but you didn't hear me."
Ms Kung's bedroom is sound-proofed, news reports said, which explains why she did not hear him inside the shop adjoining her room.
The CCTV camera footage shows him sitting down in front of the owner, almost apologetically. He asks: "Have I come to the wrong person's place?"
"If you want anything just take it, but please spare me and my son,'' she said.
The burglar asks her for her gold necklace, but Ms Kung, perhaps spotting Mr Worawat was less than committed to the job, claims it was hard to get off her neck.
She also noticed her nighttime visitor was wearing an earplug attached to a phone.
At one point Mr Worawat leaves the room to chat outside, where the cameras caught his exchange with someone on the phone, whom Ms Kung takes to be the mastermind behind the robbery.
"What do I have to do next? She has a son...why didn't you tell me? Will the police come? What will you have me take? I will sort it..."
Back inside the room, she tries talking to him, asking: "What are you looking for, Nong? Do you want documents?"
"No, no...I just want this," he said, referring to her phone and some spare change.
Towards the end of his hour-long stay, the footage also shows the thief striking Ms Kung over the head with the butt of his gun, after he asked about the necklace again and she denied having any.
When he sees her bloody head wound he takes fright, fleeing out the back with three phones worth about 80,000 baht in total plus 3,000 baht in cash.
With the help of a nearby trader, Ms Kung contacted police and sought medical help. She needed four stitches for the wound.
By next morning police were able to arrest Mr Worawat, who claims he was acting alone. "I wasn't talking to anyone else, and don't have a phone," he claimed.
Muang police said they had no evidence to pursue the supposed mastermind. However, Ms Kung wants them to reconsider, as she says local traders are now worried about their security. "He just broke in, brazenly disregarding the law, and police can't find the person behind it," she complained on social media.
Police say Mr Worawat, whom they have charged with theft and assault, is behind a string of recent robberies. On Dec 9, he stole a saleng vehicle; three days later, he robbed tiles from a showroom, and on Dec 13 robbed a public servant's home. It is unclear why he targeted the phone shop.
Excitement at the mall
A Samut Prakan man is refusing to apologise after slapping a woman in the face at a department store in a kitchen-sink drama which stands to cost him 10,000 baht.
Nakarin Kehtthong
Nakarin Kehtthong, 30, reported to Bang Phli police in Samut Prakan last week after he slapped Jularat "Bee" Ketmek, 20, on Dec 2, spurred by a social media post which he took to be inflammatory. He said he had known B for years and hit her after she meddled in his life once too often.
Mr Nakarin and his partner, Nareerat Srisamut, 36, were shopping at the Bang Phli store when he saw Ms Bee's Facebook post which he took to be a sarcastic remark about his partner, who has breast cancer.
He marched to the store's second floor where she works at a phone sales shop and in full view of shoppers slapped her repeatedly in the face. Earlier, Ms Bee had posted on Facebook saying was seeking donations of underwear for breast cancer sufferers.
"She said she had plenty of underwear she wasn't using any more, and said she would like to donate it to someone suffering from breast cancer. Coincidentally, Nareerat, my partner, has just had her breast removed. I was sure she was referring to her, so I went to see her," he said.
Mr Nakarin said she had known Ms Bee for three or four years as she used to go out with a junior from his workplace. She also works with Ms Nareerat, and had introduced them.
Nareerat Srisamut
In mid-year, Ms Nareerat discovered Ms Bee had sent Mr Nakarin's ex-girlfriend a message saying Ms Nareerat had breast cancer. This upset Ms Nareerat, who had bad blood with the ex-girlfriend.
Mr Nakarin said he has been supporting his partner during her cancer battle and Bee's meddling was adding to their stress. He had warned her, to no avail.
Jularat 'Bee' Ketmek
Ms Bee laid a complaint with police following the slapping attack on Dec 2. However, after it failed to make progress, she returned to the station on Dec 16 with CCTV vision of the incident. Police later summoned Mr Nakarin on an assault charge.
Mr Nakarin said he had returned with his partner to her family home in Sukhothai as she recovers, but travelled back to Samut Prakan to report to police.
Talking to the media, he said he had no intention of apologising. "She has caused us to argue and break up many times," he said.
"When she saw me, she asked: Have you come to donate underwear? So I slapped her. Nareerat saw it and raced over to part us," he said.
Ms Bee liked to post messages about him and his family, causing arguments with his partner and mother. "The FB post was the last straw," he said.
Pol Col Wiroj Tadso, head of Bang Phli station, said police fined him 2,000 baht for assault but added he'd also have to pay whatever damages are agreed with Bee.
Ms Bee, who wants Mr Nakarin to pay 10,000 baht in damages, said she is sure someone goaded him into thinking she had been talking to his ex-girlfriend again, which was not true. "In fact, I haven't been talking to her as we are not close," she said.
She was not having a dig at his partner when she posted about seeking underwear donations for cancer sufferers, she claimed. The pair were once close but fell out, she said, after Ms Nareerat started passing on news about her to Mr Nakarin's mother until they started having problems and stopped talking.
Unhappy spirits 'possess' car
A Lampang man is keen to donate his second-hand car to a deserving temple after he claims he was paid a visit by the unhappy spirit of its former owner.
Thanawat "Ball" Kamwarat, 29, a durian trader, bought a Honda City, aged about 20 years, about six months ago for his staff to take on odd jobs.
He said he drove the car himself to a laundromat in Chatchai Road, Muang district, early on Dec 15, without the protection of a Buddhist amulet he normally carries. He said he was sitting in the driver's seat when he was paid a visit by the spirit of a man breathing heavily from the back. "At first I thought I was hearing things so I tried holding my breath and listening again. But the breathing came back. Alarmed, I tried to keep control, meditated and prayed," he told reporters.
Mr Ball said he also heard someone dragging his feet around the vehicle even though he could see no one there. Panicking, he left the car and asked his girlfriend to pick him up. He also asked his hapless staff to come and fetch the vehicle.
The next day, Mr Ball told his mother what happened. She contacted a medium, who surmised that the spirit of a former owner, perhaps killed in a road accident involving the vehicle, was trapped inside the car and wanted someone to perform a ceremony to invite him out. "I am not taking any chances. I will donate the vehicle to any temple in need of one. I don't want to sell it as the next owner may be haunted the way I was," he said.
Mr Ball said he was the sixth owner of the car and a check of the body work showed evidence of extensive repairs. A friend who owns a car tent had sold it to him for just 80,000, well below its market price.
"My mate said it was involved in a bad accident and flipped over. I reckon there might have been two bodies involved in the accident as two spirits visited me in the car," he said. Mr Ball did not say if there had been any takers for his offer.
