Creating the perfect crime

BANGKOK: Police spent more than three hours searching for a van hijacked by gunmen carrying 440,000 baht in expressway toll fees and a hostage – before they realized that the man who reported the theft had invented the entire story. The man, identified as Rungniran Nabamrung, 29, faces a charge of making a false statement to police, punishable by up to six months in jail and a 10,000 baht fine. K. Rungniran told officers directing traffic at Lak Si intersection in Bangkok that he had been on a motorcycle accompanying a blue security van carrying toll fees when two men in uniform pulled guns on the van driver at a stop. According to police, K. Rungniran said he tried to intervene when the gunmen forced the driver out of the van, but they drove off with the cash and a hostage, Sukanya Rungruangkit, the company’s chief accountant, who had been sitting in the back seat. Police said Rungniran gave a believable account, and they reported the situation to Police Commisioner Lt Gen Damrongsak Nilkuha, who took command of the rescue operation himself. First Region Police and Aviation Police set out to intercept the van, patrolling Vibhavadi-Rangsit Rd and Phaholyothin Rd to Saraburi, but there was no van to be found. Rungniran eventually confessed to making the whole incident up. He had recently been discharged from the Somdej Chaopraya Hospital, which treats the mentally ill.