Two boys, 13, arrested for motorbike theft

PHUKET: Police who raided an old tin mine off Chaofa Nok Rd, following a tip-off, found two 13-year-old boys in the act of dropping a motorbike engine block into the mine. Pol Maj Thanet Puangmanee and his men raided the old mine beside Wat Naka on Monday and found the two boys, one from Chalong and the other from Karon, surrounded by motorcycle parts. After their arrest, the boys – both students at a “well-known” school in Phuket Town, admitted that they had stolen the red Honda motorbike two days earlier from outside the Thavorn Grand Plaza Hotel in Phuket Town. They hid the bike in the forest, and then came back to strip it down, intending to sell the parts to repair shops. They dropped the engine block into the old mine because of the engine number stamped on it. Both were remanded in custody at the Juvenile Observation and Protection Center to await trial.