Purse-snatching pinch: Chinese thief bagged for swiping 2.1 million baht Louis Vuitton at Bangkok airport

Thai police yesterday arrested a Chinese man after he stole an exclusive Louis Vuitton bag worth 2.1 million baht from a fellow Chinese woman at the Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok.

The Chinese woman, Linlu Jiang, filed a complaint at Don Mueng Police Station on June 18 that she left her pink Louis Vuitton handbag at a visa-on-arrival counter at the Don Mueang Airport. However, when she returned to retrieve it, it had vanished.

Channel 7 reported that the Chinese victim is a former beauty pageant contestant in China. She travelled from the Maldives to explore Thailand. The bag in question is a limited edition model and only five of them exist in the world.

Police officers reviewed CCTV footage at the counter and nearby areas until they identified the thief. In the footage, a Chinese man, 38 year old Xiaoyi Liao, is seen staring at the pink luxury bag. He then placed his backpack on the counter to hide the victim’s bag from view before holding both bags and heading straight to the bathroom.

In the bathroom, Liao discarded the victim’s identification card, credit card, and other personal belongings into a trash can. He then travelled out of the airport with the victim’s bag in a taxi car.

Following further investigation, police discovered the Chinese thief travelled to the northern province of Chaing Mai, and he planned to travel back to China on June 21 from Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok.

Officers closely monitored the suspect’s movements and successfully apprehended him at the airport yesterday while he was about to board his flight. The designer bag was found in his backpack, forcing him to admit to his criminal activities.

There has been a series of arrests involving Chinese nationals in Thailand after the relaxation of travel restrictions between the two countries. Many of them were arrested for organising drug parties and operating several types of scams.

For example, yesterday, Thai police officers arrested a Chinese woman at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok when she was preparing to flee the country after she and several others operated a loan scam system in Thailand.