Thai taxi driver steals 1.1 million baht watch from Japanese passenger

A Thai taxi driver took a two-hour detour to steal a luxury watch worth 1.1 million baht from a Japanese passenger in the Thonglor neighbourhood of Bangkok.

The Japanese victim filed a complaint at Thonglor Police Station on December 19 that he lost his watch, an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore model, valued at 1.1 million baht, in a taxi on December 17. He believed that the taxi driver stole it because the driver suspiciously took two hours for only a one-kilometre journey.

The foreign victim explained that he took a taxi from a restaurant in Soi Thonglor 13 to his condominium at around 12.30pm on December 17. The taxi took a detour for only one kilometre and arrived at his condominium at 5pm. The taxi may have taken advantage of him falling asleep.

Police checked a CCTV camera in front of the restaurant and discovered that the victim had taken a green-yellow taxi car. Other CCTV cameras showed the taxi driver driving along Thonglor Road past the victim’s destination, sometimes stopping on the side of the road.

Officers identified the driver as a 44 year old Thai man named Boonlert and arrested him at his home in Pathum Thani province, near Bangkok. Boonlert initially denied the accusation but was forced to admit to it when the evidence became clear.

Police checked Boonlert’s mobile phone and found that he sent a picture of the watch to his girlfriend on December 17. Boonlert also searched for the watch according to the search history, and his financial transaction showed that he received 337,000 baht on the following day, December 18.

Due to the evidence, Boonlert admitted to the theft and confessed that he took a detour waiting for the Japanese passenger to fall asleep and stole the watch. He sold the watch to a merchant at CentralwOld shopping mall. Officers were able to contact the merchant and retrieve the watch for the victim.

Boonlert was charged with Section 335 of the Criminal Law: committing theft at night time. The penalty will be imprisonment from one to five tears and a fine from 20,000 to 100,000 baht.

A similar theft against a Japanese victim was reported in Jun this year. A Thai taxi driver was arrested after stealing assets worth 1.2 million baht from a Japanese passenger who was drunk and fell asleep during a journey in Bangkok.