Three robbed in teenage gang spree

PHUKET TOWN: Police have arrested two members of a teenage motorcycle gang who carried out three robberies in the space of two hours early on Thursday. One of the robberies involved snatching a necklace from a foreigner who was behind the wheel of his car at the time. Pol Maj Pissanu Poonwongs, of Phuket Town Police Station, named the victim as Michael Roch, 51, from Germany. Mr Roch told police that he was driving with three Thai friends after 1 am when four teenagers on two motorbikes pulled up beside his car at the Narisorn Rd and Montri Rd intersection. He thought that his car had been scratched so he wound down the window. One youth quickly snatched his gold necklace, weighing three baht, and the four youths rode off. At 1.45am Mr Roch went to report thr robbery to police. Two Thai men also reported having been robbed. One man said that, at 1 am, he and a friend came back from a concert and stopped at toilets at a gas station at the Srisena Rd-Surin Rd junction. Six teenagers were sitting there. One of them pulled a knife and stole his mobile phone, his watch and about 1,000 baht. At 2.45 am another Thai man was robbed of cash at knife-point at the corner of Ong Sim Phai Rd and Tilok U-Thit 2 Rd. Police later arrested two teenagers and recovered all the stolen items except the gold necklace. Checks showed that the pair had perviously served time in the Phuket Juvenile Observation and Protection Center for theft and glue sniffing. Police are still hunting the other gang members.