A transgender woman was arrested for robbing a gold shop in Sadao district of Songkhla on Thursday, claiming she needed money to buy a firearm to kill a former aide, who was accused of colluding with her ex-boyfriend to cheat her out of a substantial sum of money.
Police arrested Preecha Samankhoon, or Thian, a 20-year-old native of Phangnga, at a mansion room in downtown Hat Yai in the early hours of Friday. Eight stolen gold necklaces were seized from her possession.
During questioning, the transgender woman told police that she resorted to the robbery because she was in dire need of money to buy a gun. She intended to use the weapon to kill a former aide, who allegedly conspired with her former boyfriend to cheat her out of hundreds of thousands of baht.
The arrest followed a lone robber's act at Yaowarat Krungthep gold shop at Lotus's shopping mall in Sadao on Thursday evening.
The robber made off with eight gold necklaces, weighing 24 baht of gold with a combined worth of about 800,000 baht, and fled on a motorcycle. Three shop employees, all women, were unhurt but appeared visibly frightened, said Pol Lt Col Pichai Khunthongkaew, investigation chief at Sadao station, who was reported around 5.30pm on Thursday.
Closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage showed the robber, appearing like a woman with a face mask, entering the shop armed with a knife. After threatening the employees to sit down, she jumped across the counter and swiftly took gold necklaces from the showcase. The robbery lasted just one minute.
Police began tracking down the suspect's escape and obtained clues about the whereabouts of the robber, confirming her transgender identity.
Suspect Preecha Samankhoon, 20, is arrested and taken to Sadao police station in Songkhla for questioning over the gold shop robbery. (Photo: Assawin Pakkawan)
At around 8.30pm on Thursday, investigators found the abandoned motorcycle about 2 kilometres away from the shopping mall.
Further information revealed that the robber had used a Grab car service to reach the Sadao border checkpoint, initially leading investigators to suspect she might have crossed into Malaysia.
Shortly after midnight, the suspect was traced to a room in a downtown Hat Yai district mansion, where she was arrested.