Much ado about makeup

PHUKET TOWN: It was the case of the lipstick that ticked. A woman’s purse was lost on a bus, and was handed in to the Police Service Center in Tambon Witchit. Somehow it went astray again, turning up on a chair near the entrance to the Service Center – with spectacular results. Pol Maj Thanapong Mokthong, Inspector of Forensic Science, Phuket Provincial Police, said that after the purse was noticed by an alert passerby, officers from Phuket Town checked it, but couldn’t open it. Then they heard a noise inside it. “The bomb squad was called and officers decided that it was necessary to destroy the purse because we didn’t know what was in it,” Maj Thanapong said. Police dug a hole in the playground in front of the Police Service Center, gingerly put the purse in it, placed two car tires over the hole, then fired a high pressure water gun at the purse. White powder, which police believe was most likely from cosmetics, covered the grass.