Man caught stealing phone services

PATONG: A 36-year-old German has been charged with theft after being caught tapping into a telephone line near Wat Suwankeereewong on the outskirts of Patong, along the Patong-Kathu road. Voravit Vorapiboonpong, chief of the Phuket Telecommunication Center of the Communications Authority of Thailand (CAT), told the Gazette that on Monday he was alerted by the CAT in Bangkok that someone had tapped into the line and stolen calls. Khun Voravit and his staff went to Patong and checked the cable. In a grove of trees, at a place where the cable passes over a small hill, making it easily accessible to anyone on the ground, they found a cut in the telephone wire insulation. That night, the phone men lay in ambush for two hours before seeing the German arrive and tap into the line. They grabbed him and escorted him to the police station. There, he admitted he had been making phone calls since August 2, racking up bills of somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 baht. Khun Voravit said the phone line’s legitimate subscriber had been informed and would receive a refund from the CAT.