Thief steals nearly 500,000 baht of gold necklaces in Rayong

Police are hunting for a thief who stole 15 gold necklaces valued at almost 500,000 baht from a gold shop in a Robinson shopping mall in the Baan Chang district of Rayong, in the eastern part of Thailand.

According to Piyanoot, an employee at Premium Gold Yaowarat on the mall’s first floor, the robbery took place around 3pm yesterday when there were not many shoppers around. She and another female worker were present in the store when a man wearing a brown bucket hat and a face mask entered.

The man suddenly brandished a gun and threatened them. They feared for their safety and hid under the counter. The man then hopped onto the gold display counter and snatched 15 gold necklaces from the cabinet behind the counter.

From security camera footage, the man then dashed to his bronze Honda motorcycle parked outside the mall and fled from the scene by speeding toward Sukhumvit Road. Witnesses reported to police that they spotted the thief riding a motorcycle near Haad Phala which is about 13 kilometres away from the crime scene.

Officers from Baan Chang Police Station are still searching for the thief.

Two days ago, a gold shop in a department store in the Bang Sao Thong district of Samut Prakarn province near Bangkok was robbed of gold necklaces worth about 233,000 baht. The thief posed as a customer. He showed interest in several necklaces before grabbing four of them and escaping from the shopping mall on a motorcycle.

Another gold robbery was reported in the northern province of Chiang Rai on Thursday, April 13. A thief entered the gold shop in a shopping mall when the shop was about to close. He tried to grab a tray of gold rings from a shop worker’s hands but missed. The desperate thief then ran away from the shop empty handed. No information regarding his apprehension was reported in the media.