Mini biker gang

Three boys are now safely back at home after a four-day bicycle adventure across Roi-Et Province. The mini-biker gang set off from the home of gang leader Tawee Senputtawong, 13, in the Kasetwisai District of the province with the aim of visiting his sister who is incarcerated on theft charges in a Juvenile Observation and Protection Center in Roi-Et Town. On August 18, young Tawee led his two younger accomplices, Tontrakan Phosrirat, 10, and Phongphet Thaonoo, 9, out on two old bicycles. The boys took turns pedaling and balancing on the back for the 70-kilometer journey. When they reached the town Tawee became confused by the unfamiliar streets and found he could not remember where the detention center was. The boys therefore decided to pedal around the town in an attempt to find it. When they could pedal no more, they stopped at a sala for the night. They remained there for two days before a park security guard finally noticed them and kicked them out. Soon after, the boys, now exhausted and very grubby, were stopped by a police officer. After talking with the boys the officer discovered that they had been reported missing and took them ©to Roi-Et Town Police Station. They recounted their tale to the police officers there. The officers, taking pity on them, treated them to a meal and held a collection to raise money for them. In total they collected over 500 baht, most of it coming from Pol Sen Sgt Maj Naphrat Supratri who had won money in a recent lottery. The police then contacted the boys’ parents and told them to come pick them up. Tawee’s and Tontrakan’s parents said the boys might have to wait a bit; they had no money for the bus fare and would have to try to borrow it from neighbors. In the meantime, Tawee and Tontrakan told Phongphet that they were going out to buy food and would be back soon. After a few hours the two boys had still not returned, so police sent out a team to look for them. They could find no trace. Phongphet was collected by his parents. The search was called off when the boys turned up at school the following day, having cycled the 70km back home. After the story was released, reporters went to interview the object of the boys’ quest, Tawee’s 15-year-old sister. She said that this wasn’t the first time her brother had done something like this. Two weeks earlier he had turned up at the center in the middle of the night after cycling all the way to see her. She said that three years before, when Tawee was 10, he had cycled all the way to Nakhon Ratchasima where she had been working, a distance of about 300 kilometers. She explained that she and her brother were very close and she was the only person Tawee would listen to. When she was living at home she would take care of her brother as the family was very poor and their parents were busy working, she said.