Taking candy from baby

BANGKOK: A daughter delivered her father’s safe, containing over 2 million baht in cash and valuables, to swindlers who called her and told her that her father owed them a lot of money. Rapipat Surapipit, 57, Personnel Manager of Plaza Athenee Hotel in Bangkok, told police that his daughter (name and age unreported) was at home with the family’s 24-year-old maid on June 16 when a woman called the house claiming to be a bank officer. The woman told the girl that her father risked bankruptcy if he didn’t settle up his debts. She encouraged the girl to phone her dad to confirm that the story was true. But when the girl called her dad’s mobile, a woman who identified herself as Khun Ke answered the phone. K. Ke, who said she was K. Rapipat’s secretary, told her that her father was too busy to take the call. But, she said, K. Rapipat had left instructions for the daughter to deliver the family safe to a spot next to a public phone booth in front of the Carrefour Department Store, Lard Prao branch. The girl believed the story, and in a move that she will no doubt regret for the rest of her life, she instructed the family maid, a girl named Khamwan, to take the safe to the designated spot. Good maids do what they are told, and Khamwan carried out the order. She told the police that a man of about 30 was walking around the safe as she left to return home. When K. Rapipat came home he found his life savings missing. The strongbox had contained land titles, jewelry, gold and cash totaling over two million baht in value, he said. Pol Maj Krit Jangsang of Toongsonghone Police Station revealed that this was the 10th such scam the swindlers have pulled off. It likely won’t be the last, either, as the gang remains at large.