Pigging out: Elderly Thai couple scammed by swine swindlers

An elderly couple from Khlong Khlung, Kamphaeng Phet, yesterday fell victim to a scam by a group of pig thieves who drugged them and stole their pigs. The couple reported the incident after regaining consciousness.

At around 5pm, yesterday, July 8, four men arrived at the couple’s home in a white Toyota. The men, aged between 40 and 60 years old, posed as pig buyers and requested to purchase the pigs that 72 year old Somwang and 62 year old Pensri had been raising.

Somwang revealed that his pigs were not yet ready for sale but one of the men insisted on inspecting the pigs and led him to the pigpen. Somwang had over 40 pigs, and as he was being led, he started feeling dizzy. The man claimed the pigs were big enough, weighing over 100 kilogrammes each, and called his three accomplices to help.

They managed to take six pigs, weighed them, and handed Somwang 19,668 baht. However, the actual value of the pigs was 42,500 baht. After receiving the money, Somwang drank several glasses of water from a container, which led to him feeling increasingly disoriented. He soon realised that the four men and the pigs had disappeared.

Pensri recounted that while the men were weighing the pigs, they asked for some water. She provided a nearly full jug, and both she and her husband drank from it. Shortly after, they began feeling unwell and lost consciousness.

When they regained awareness around 10pm, they tried calling the men to question the discrepancy in the pigs’ weight and their whereabouts but received no response.

The next day, the couple reported the incident to the Khlong Khlung Police Station. Pensri mentioned that since the incident, she had felt dizzy, nauseous, and lethargic. She needed several injections at a clinic to alleviate her symptoms.

Pensri stressed that neither she nor her husband recognised the four men and urged the police to apprehend them to prevent similar incidents from happening to others.

“We don’t know the men who came to our house. We’ve never seen them before. I want the police to catch them so they can’t do this to anyone else.”

The police are investigating the case, aiming to track down the pig thieves and bring them to justice, reported KhaoSod.