Man steals one million baht to pay off gambling debts

Caitlin AshworthPublished: 10:13, 21 May 2020| Updated: 10:13, 21 May 2020

195 1 minute read

Man steals one million baht to pay off gambling debts

What would you do if you were broke and owed 800,000 baht in gambling debts? Rob a bank? Seems like the start of a movie, but that’s basically what happened earlier this week in Northern Thailand. On Monday, 2 men robbed a car at gunpoint in front of Bangkok Bank Branch in Chiang Saen and sped off on their motorbike, Thai media reports. The victim was withdrawing 1,050,000 baht for an agricultural cooperative.

After a tip, police arrested one of the robbers reported as ‘Sitthichok’. He worked for the cooperative in the past and knew when withdrawals would be made at the bank. He pocketed 200,000 baht and used 800,000 within a day to pay off his gambling debts.

Caitlin Ashworth

Caitlin Ashworth is a writer from the United States who has lived in Thailand since 2018. She graduated from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and media studies in 2016. She was a reporter for the Daily Hampshire Gazette In Massachusetts. She also interned at the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia and Sarasota Herald-Tribune in Florida.