Police have arrested a man who presented a threatening note to a Bangkok Bank staffer in Chon Buri and fled to Chai Nat with 600,000 baht on Friday afternoon.
Suriya: Carried out robbery 'cooly'
Police said Suriya Takona, 31, was caught boarding an interprovincial bus on the Bangkok-Chiang Mai route in Chai Nat's Manorom district at 10pm on Friday.
The man wore a black cap and face mask as he entered the bank's Ban Kao branch in Chon Buri's Phan Thong district at 2.27pm, acting like other customers, police said.
They said that when it was his turn to be served, the man presented a queue ticket and a note to a staffer saying: "Don't talk to anyone. There is a gun in my bag. Act normally and hand me 4 million baht.
"If you talk, people will get killed here and you will be the first. Put the money on the table."
Out of fear, the teller took the cash from a drawer and handed it to the robber, who put it in his shoulder bag and fled on a motorcycle, police said. Media reports remarked on how cooly he carried out the robbery.
Investigators from Provincial Police Region 2 and Chon Buri police began checking security camera footage following the theft, police said. When police caught up with the suspect later that night, they seized 595,000 baht and a fake gun before charging him with theft.
According to police, Mr Suriya worked at a factory at an industrial estate in Chong Buri's Muang district.
CCTV footage showed him boarding a passenger van to Bangkok after the robbery and taking a bus to the Mor Chit terminal in the capital to head to Chiang Mai.
During questioning, the suspect reportedly said he had a credit card debt of over 3 million baht. Police said he told investigators that he plotted the robbery on Wednesday and surveyed the area.