A man dressed as a food delivery driver who shot a gold shop owner during a robbery at a mall in Pak Chong district of Nakhon Ratchasima on Wednesday is reported to be a local policeman.
The robber made off with 126 baht weight in gold jewellery worth about 3.5 million baht.
Pak Chong police and investigators from Provincial Police Region 3 later arrested Pol Cpl Anucha Boon-arak, 25, at his home in tambon Khanong Phra in the same district.
Pol Cpl Anucha is based at Pak Chong police station.
During questioning, he allegedly admitted to having robbed the shop and showed the arresting officers where he had hidden the gold.
He was apprehended after investigators examined footage from security cameras in the local Big C shopping mall, reports said.
Pol Col Manop Phutchong, superintendent of Pak Chong station, said yesterday that investigators soon realised the robber looked like Pol Cpl Anucha, and even walked like him.
Efforts to contact him were unsuccessful, so they tracked him down and arrested him.
It is alleged that at about 5pm on Wednesday, the policeman wearing a pink food delivery outfit used a 9mm pistol to threaten staff at the Yaowarat gold shop at Big C's Pak Chong branch.
During the robbery shop owner Ditsawat Arsaitham, 39, tried to resist and was shot through the left arm.
The bullet also entered his back, inflicting a serious wound.
The robber then fled on a motorcycle.