Bangkok barber botches pawnshop job

Bangkok barber Phuttarak “Chang Tong” Nakaew was minding his own business in his shop last week when a police officer came calling, pretending to be a customer.

The officer arrested Chang Tong in Bangkok’s Bang Khun Thian district after he’d finished cutting his hair.

Sharp-eyed officers immediately seized a plastic revolver which the 40 year old used in an attempted stickup of a local pawnshop, along with the motorbike he used as a getaway vehicle.

Chang Tong admitted trying to hold up the Easy Money pawnshop on Phra Ram 2 Road on January 14.

CCTV footage showed the barber approach Samart, a security guard, outside the pawnshop, as if to ask for directions. He then draws the plastic gun, turns Samart around and escorts him inside

Easy Money staff immediately saw what was going on, and pressed a button locking the door from the inside and sounding a police alarm.

Staff then fled deeper into the bowels of the shop.

Chang Tong, realising he would get nothing, ran off and was caught at his shop hours later.

The barber said he had borrowed 50,000 baht (US$1,600) from a loan shark to open the shop, but could not afford the 3,000 baht daily repayments.

Unable to cut much more hair than he was already, the obvious solution to Chang Ting’s problems was to rob the pawnshop.

Chang Tong bought the toy gun, put a change of clothes in his backpack, and left his motorbike outside Wat Tha Kham. From there, the Bangkok barber took a taxi to the scene of the robbery.

After running from away the shop he changed into his spare outfit and took another taxi back to his motorbike. He then drove back to the shop, no better off than before, and went calmly back to scissoring.

Samart, the security guard, said he was standing at his desk when Chang Tong approached. He looked as if he was deciding whether to enter the pawnshop or the gold shop next door. The gold shop wasn’t fully open. The shutters were still half closed, so the pawnshop was the obvious choice.

Samart said…

“The thief made as if he wanted to ask a question but pulled out his golden revolver from his waist and held it to my back. He said if I did anything tricky, I would die.”

Moments later, it was all over, and the Bangkok barber, having no vehicle, fled, fleet-footed but empty-handed.