Serial thief remains elusive despite ongoing theft at temple

The abbot of a Chong Lom Temple in the central province of Chai Nat reached out to news agencies for assistance regarding an ongoing theft at the temple. The serial temple thief is still at large even though CCTV footage clearly features his face while committing the crime.

The CCTV footage revealed the thief aged approximately 30 to 40 years old and approximately 175 centimetres in height entering the accommodation of the temple abbot, Komkrit, and stealing monk robes. Moreover, the thief also stole some offerings which included instant food, and cartons of milk among other things. Komkrit said the damage was over 700,000 baht.

Before the installation of security cameras at the temple, two robberies occurred. In the first incident, approximately 200 monk robes were stolen, while the second resulted in a loss of around 100 monk robes.

Then, the temple installed security cameras in an attempt to discover the identity of the thief. Despite these efforts, a third robbery occurred on April 12 of this year, resulting in the theft of assets valued at tens of thousands of baht. The fourth robbery happened at around 2am on April 19, when the thief nabbed 50 monk robes and various offerings.

The most recent incident, the fifth theft, occurred on Thursday, May 11 at around 4.20am. On this occasion, the thief made off with 21 donated monk robes, recently provided by another temple.

Komkrit disclosed that these robberies have left the temple in a difficult situation, as there are now insufficient monk robes for the monks to use and perform their duties. Despite the clear identity of the thief in the security camera footage, officers from Sakkaburi Police Station have not managed to arrest him.

In related news, a similar theft occurred two weeks ago at the Tha Kharm temple in the Chachoengsao province in the eastern part of Thailand. In this case, a monk filed a complaint to the police after two transwomen were caught on the CCTV camera stealing a Buddha statue from the temple.

Two days after the complaint was filed, officers from the Bang Pakong Police Station managed to apprehend the two transgender thieves at a house in the same area of the temple. Three more stolen statues were found at the house. One of the thieves claimed that the stolen statues were intended for use in a ceremony during the Songkran Festival held at their home.

The officers reported that both transwomen had mental health issues, so the officers did not issue any charges against them.