Phuket gold necklace thief arrested, Pattaya thefts still unsolved
After an apparent rise in gold necklace snatching crime, police in Phuket have managed to nab one man accused of grabbing a necklace from a woman on her motorbike a few days ago. The necklace that was grabbed as the woman rode her motorbike was gold with a pendant attached and is valued at about 35,000.
The Deputy Inspector-General of Investigation at the Phuket City Police announced yesterday that they had picked up a man, whose full name was not released, that they believe to be the necklace snatcher. The man was found not in Phuket but off the island in Phang Nga, the province directly to the north. He was arrested at his home in Khok Kloi, Takua Thung District.
On Wednesday night, the thief on a motorbike grabbed the woman’s gold necklace worth about 35,000 baht. The victim, 25 year old Kawissara, said she was also driving her motorbike when the thief drove by and snatched her necklace off her neck. The incident happened in the island province’s main city district on Yaowarat Road in Samkong at about 8.20 pm.
Police investigators identified the man and an arrest warrant was issued by the Phuket Provincial Court on Saturday and officers immediately tracked him down and took him into custody. It is said that he confessed to the theft when confronted.
The man was taken into custody and held at the Phuket City Police Station. He faces charges of using a vehicle to commit a crime and fleeing the scene of the crime at night.
While justice was swift in this gold necklace theft in Phuket, there’s still a rash of as-yet unsolved gold necklace theft seeming to occur exclusively against Indian tourists around Pattaya. More than 10 such thefts have been reported, arousing suspicion of the inordinate number of Indian tourists specifically wearing high-value gold jewellery and being robbed.
