Golden opportunity gone wrong: Burmese man arrested for gold necklace heist

Police arrested a Burmese man for stealing a gold necklace worth 65,000 baht from a Thai woman in the northern province of Chiang Mai.

The 42 year old victim, surnamed Oil, filed a complaint at Mueang Chiang Mai Police Station on October 29, saying a man snatched a gold necklace she was wearing and fled at around 4am. The theft took place outside a construction equipment shop on Wiang Ping Road in the Mueang district.

Officers checked security cameras at the scene and nearby until they were able to identify the thief as a 20 year old Burmese man named Geum. Officers arrested him when he rode his motorcycle past a police checkpoint in the Chaing Doa district.

Geum explained that he worked as an entertainer at a host club in the Mueang Chaing Mai district but that he did not earn enough to cover his day-to-day expenses.

On the day of the incident, he was riding his motorbike along Wiang Ping Road when he saw the victim wearing a gold necklace.

Geum said that he was driven by an ill-conceived impulse, so he decided to park his motorcycle and walk to where he saw the victim. He grabbed the necklace and ran back to his motorcycle and fled the scene. He went to his home in the Mae Ai district and sold the necklace to a gold shop in the area.

Geum is charged with committing the crime at night by using a vehicle to facilitate the escape from arrest. He faces between one and five years in prison and a fine of between 20,000 and 100,000 baht.

In a related report, police arrested another employee of a host club in Bangkok in September for falsely identifying himself as his friend when he faced a drug-related charge, leading to the imprisonment of his innocent friend for over two months.

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