It’s no yolk! Egg theft ring cracked

NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Accounts of police breaking up rings of drug dealers, armed robbers and teenage motorcycle thieves are a fairly common occurrence in Thailand these days.

Officers from Chalermprakiat District Police had a more unusual task at hand on June 20, however, when they managed to crack a ring of egg thieves who had been terrorizing chicken coops across Khorat.

The gang came unstuck when a security guard at Jakkarach Chicken Farm reported that there were six suspicious characters spotted carrying trays of eggs near the farm fence.

When police arrived, they found the six loading eggs from a hiding place in the woods onto waiting motorbikes. When they saw police, the thieves fled in all directions. Two managed to make a clean escape, but Thanuphon Chotithonglang, 22, Wiwat Riamphit, 22, Aekachai Phengphin, 22, and Arayathai Taophali, 23, were all arrested. Police also seized 1,739 chicken eggs and three motorcycles as evidence.

Thanuphon confessed to police that there were six members of the gang, who divided up duties among themselves. Two would sneak into the farm and move trays of eggs to the fence. Two others would move the eggs to a hiding place in the woods, where the remaining two members would guard them. After they had collected enough eggs, they loaded them onto their motorbikes and made their escape, Thanuphon explained.

Col Phinij Phongphamon, Superintendent of Chalermprakiat District Police Station, said theft cases were increasing due to the poor state of the economy. The suspects in this case worked selling SIM cards for a telecoms company. Some were already married with children, he said.

As some of the gang had previously been egg farm employees, they knew how the operations worked – and how best to exploit them.

After the thefts, the gang would divide up the eggs. Some were eaten, the rest sold at discount rates in nearby villages, Col Phinij said.

They had targeted a number of farms in Chalermprakiat and Jakkarach districts, he added.

The four were charged with trespass and theft. Police are still hunting for their two accomplices.

Police said that they would return the eggs to the farm rather than keep them as evidence – as they were worried about them going rotten while the legal system processed the case.