Exchange firm robbed of 1 million baht

PHUKET TOWN: Two armed men stole a million baht from a currency exchange in Phuket Town yesterday. Pol Maj Sanya Thongsawas of Phuket Town Police Station told the Gazette that Parinya Sangrangchujit, 45, manager of the exchange operation, was counting money he had just withdrawn from a bank in Phuket Town, when two neatly dressed men rang the bell. The center’s other employees were out at lunch so Parinya examined them carefully via a security camera. Deciding that they looked legitimate, he let them in and continued to count the money. The two men asked Parinya for the dollar-baht rate, then suddenly one of them pulled out a pistol and told Parinya, “This is a robbery.” The other man, armed with a knife, secured Parinya’s hands behind his back with plastic tape and demanded to know where the key to the safe was. Parinya told the men that the key was in his pocket. The robbers took cash in baht and dollars worth about 900,000 baht from the safe, and a further 100,000 baht that was on the table. After the thieves departed, Parinya untied himself and called the police. “There is no progress on the case yet. We know from Parinya that one man was about 170 centimeters tall and had a Central Thai accent. The other was 163–165 centimeters tall. Both had dark complexions and shoulder-length hair, and were dressed in white, like tour guides,” Maj Sanya said. While the police continue to search for the two men, the legitimacy of the exchange business itself is under scrutiny. Pol Col Chalit Tintanee, superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, told the Gazette that “responsibility actually belongs to the Bank of Thailand, and we will have to work with them on that aspect of the case. “I believe the robbers must have had help from the inside as they seemed to know what Parinya would do that day,” he added. “We will try to catch them soon.”