Fifth time unlucky for furniture thief

CHALONG: A man was placed under citizens arrest by the owner of a furniture shop after he was caught stealing three large wooden clocks at 3:45 am on April 25. It was the fifth time within a month that the man had broken into Watthana Wood Furniture on Chao Fa East Rd.

Lt Col Chokchai Sutthimek, an Inspector at Chalong Police Station, said that the thief, Thammarong Wongpanya, 31, a native of Lamphun province, had previously broken into the store on April 8, 11, 17 and 23.

“After the third break in, the store owner fitted a closed-circuit television system to catch the thief. On April 23 he recorded footage of the thief breaking in again. He was wearing a blue helmet and dark brown jacket,” Col Chokchai said.

On April 25, a neighbor called shop owner Watthana Luangpraditthakul to tell him that someone was breaking into his store again. K. Watthana rushed to the scene with some of his employees and found Thammarong in the process of stealing three large wooden clocks. K. Watthana fired a warning shot with his 9mm pistol and demanded that the thief come out and surrender. When Thammarong emerged from the shop, K. Watthana’s employees restrained him roughly. He was then handed over to police, Col Chokchai said.

“We charged Thammarong with trespass and theft. He initially denied the charges but after we searched his house in Patong and found furniture worth more than 10,000 which K. Watthana confirmed came from his shop, Thammarong confessed to all five robberies.

“Thammarong was offered bail but opted to stay in prison. He is now being detained at Chalong Police Station. All of K. Watthana’s missing furniture was returned except for one clock which we believe the suspect may have already sold,” Col Chokchai added.