PATTAYA - Police officers have been ordered to go after snatchers after several tourists visiting the resort city were their target last week.
Pattaya police chief Pol Col Apichai Krobpetch called a meeting with his subordinates on Monday urging them to step up vigilance and efforts to arrest the snatchers, who had been damaging the image of the beach town.
The police station plans to offer bounties for tip-offs leading to their arrests.
The meeting was called after three foreign visitors had seen their necklaces snatched in four days in Pattaya. The necklace of a Chinese tourist was snatched on Wednesday, followed by two visitors from South Korea on Saturday.
The thefts had the same pattern as all were walking at night and a person in a mask snatched the necklaces and fled on a motorcycle.
It remains unclear whether they were the target of the same snatcher.