70 Burmese arrested for having too much fun

KARON: Seventy Burmese workers celebrating a friend’s wedding were arrested and taken to Chalong Police Station after a neighbor complained that they were singing too loud.

Chalong Police Inspector Pol Maj Peeranat Chatinkaew told the Gazette that his office received a complaint about 1:30 am on Tuesday, informing police that Burmese workers behind Wat Karon were disturbing the peace by singing karaoke too loud.

Some of them had been drinking, he said.

When police arrived at the scene the group quickly scattered, but police captured nearly all of them.

The 20 members deemed to have been causing the most noise were fined 500 baht each before the entire group was released, he added.

In Thalang on Wednesday, officials led by Chief Administrative Officer (Palad) Thummarong Chuayagsorn arrested three Burmese men found walking through a rubber plantation with homemade rifles about 1:30 pm.

The officials were responding to a complaint by villagers in Tambon Srisoonthorn who said they were afraid of the men.

K. Thummarong told the Gazette that he and his men formed a “special task force” and spread out in the rubber plantation before finding three Burmese, identified only as Tui, 33; Wow, 26; and Pu, 40.

Each man was found in possession of a homemade rifle. More than 100 bullets were recovered from one of the men’s trouser pockets, he said.

The men told the officials that they were employed to look after a local rubber plantation. They all had valid work permits. They said they needed the firearms to hunt and for protection, because they had a running conflict with other Burmese men in the area.

Two other Burmese men known to be living in the area and the men’s employer will be investigated, he added.