Monk’s room ransacked, 10 million baht worth of gems taken

A Central Thailand monk’s room was ransacked yesterday. Abbot of Wat Prathum Bucha in Prachin Buri came back to his room after performing religious duties and found his door forced open, bed searched and safes opened. Thousands of baht in cash and millions of baht worth of gems were taken.

The thieves took off with more than 10 million baht worth of gems that were donated to the monk. Burglars found 300,000 baht in cash that the monk kept above his bed. Luckily, the burglars didn’t take 700,000 baht kept inside his safe.

The monk told police he suspects technicians, who were repairing surveillance cameras on temple grounds, might have something to do with the robbery. He asked the technicians if they had seen anything, but all of them said “no.”

The monk says that many of the surveillance cameras in key areas did not work at the time of the incident, even though they were repaired the day before. Police are still investigating. They say they found footprints behind the temple they believe are from the burglars.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post