CHON BURI: A man armed with a BB gun escaped with gold necklaces worth over 2 million baht after robbing a gold shop in the Big C department store in Sattahip district on Sunday morning, police said.
Surveillance camera footage at the Supatra Yaowarat Gold Shop store showed a man, 160-170 centimetres tall and wearing a black shirt with long sleeves, a pair of white jeans and a military camouflage hat, walking into the shop at about 10.15am.
The man forced Umaporn Buabut, 22, a shop employee, to put gold ornaments into a plastic bag at gunpoint. When the bag containing six five-baht necklaces, 21 three-baht necklaces and 32 fifty-satang necklaces, altogether weighing 109 baht, the robber ran out of the store, heading in the direction of Thongthip market at Ban Tao Than.
Chatchai Kham-iam, a trolley handler at the store, said he gave chase to the robber but the man jumped into a canal before escaping into a forest.
About 30 policemen were deployed in a search for the robber. They found a box for the M92 BB gun left near a house behind the Thongthip market and took it as evidence.
The robber was still at large.