Teenage student steals 700,000 baht from teacher to buy 11 iPhones for friends

A Thai teacher sought justice after her 14 year old student stole 700,000 baht from her house to buy 11 iPhones for her boyfriend and friends and the children’s guardians failed to take responsibility for the losses.

The victim, 42 year old Rungrat Chokchai, urged Amarin TV and other news agencies to tell her story to the public in the hope that she would get all her money back. Rungrat said she was a teacher at a school in the central province of Uthai Thani and lost 700,000 baht to a schoolgirl living near her house.

Rungrat explained that she lived with six other family members in a house in the Huay Kot sub-district of Uthai Thani province. Her house was also used as a local grocery store, so it was open during the day and many people visited it.

According to Rungrat, the 14 year old girl, identified only as A, attempted to steal 2,000 baht money from her shop at 10am on October 19. The girl lived next to Rungrat’s house and pretended to come into the shop to buy snacks.

Instead of choosing the products, she went straight to the counter where she kept the money and grabbed two 1,000 baht notes. Her theft was unsuccessful and Rungrat’s mother, Wattana, noticed what she had done. Wattana told the girl to return the money and that she would never report it to the police, and the girl complied.

Rungrat said she later heard from locals in the area that A and her friends had spent a lot of money together. Her nephew, who studied with A, also told her that A bought iPhones for her friends and boyfriends. Suspicious, Rungrat checked her savings at home and found that all the money was gone.

Police unable to recover money

Rungrat clarified that she lost 700,000 baht in total which 500,000 baht was borrowed from the Teachers’ Saving Cooperative and 200,00 baht was her mother’s savings. She was confident that A sneaked into her house on November 28 to steal the money and reported this to the Huay Kot Police Station.

Officers summoned A for questioning, and A admitted to her crime. She said she stole 700,000 baht money and gave I tall to her 14 year old boyfriend named New. New denied A’s words saying he got only 300,00 baht and shared it with his friend named Ball.

The teenagers told police they went to a shopping mall together and bought 11 iPhones. Officers were able to recover all the phones, resell them to the seller and return 120,000 baht to Rungrat.

Rungrat stated that the officers asked her to hire a lawyer to sue the children and their guardians if she wanted the rest of the 580,000 baht back. The officers told Rungrat that it was not in their power to summon the children’s guardians to repay Rungrat.

Rungrat stated that she wanted the media to spread this story to the public to put pressure on the children’s families to take responsibility for their losses. Rungrat did not say whether or not she would hire a lawyer to get her money back.