Cops and fobbers

BANGKOK: A former security guard at the Israeli Embassy in Bangkok was arrested on August 8 for impersonating a police officer and illegal possession of a firearm, police said. Following reports of gunfire at 5 am , two police officers from the Makkasan Police station found Theerapong Sawaiprekon, 30, in a police uniform at the scene. The former security guard told police that he was an officer at Hua Mark Police Station before speeding off after a group of motorcycle racers and shooting his gun into the air. Noting that this was not standard procedure, the officers then stopped him and took him to the station for questioning. Theerapong later told police that he dressed as a police officer as an excuse for his wife that he had to go to work, but then sneaked off to see his mistress. Theerapong used to work as a security guard at the Israeli Embassy but resigned and had been unemployed ever since. He had also been a student at a police training school, but was expelled because he had a habit of firing his gun in the air. The Makkasan area has a distinguished history of police impersonators. Back in November 1994, another man there was arrested there for dressing like a cop. Using a stolen uniform and other equipment stolen piece-by-piece from area police boxes, he set up his own extortion point and spent two months posing as a traffic cop in order to extort money from motorists. The motorists were none the wiser, and there were no reports of anything out of the usual. He was finally caught out when a senior officer passed him on an inspection tour and he saluted his “superior” – with his left hand.