Vice-Governor’s home burgled

PHUKET CITY: Police have few leads in their investigation of the burglary on Tuesday of Phuket Vice-Governor Niran Kalayanamit’s official residence on Kamnan Rd.

Phuket City Police Superintendent Pol Col Nos Avettalekha today confirmed to the Gazette that K. Niran’s house had been broken into while the island’s senior Vice-Governor was in Bangkok attending a meeting on preparations for next month’s tsunami memorial activities.

“Right now there isn’t much progress in the case. We still don’t know exactly what items were stolen because the Vice-Governor is very busy right now. We haven’t been able to talk to him yet,” said the new police chief.

He said the initial investigation failed to turn up any fingerprints, probably because the thief or thieves were wearing gloves, a pair of which were found at the scene. He said there were also signs of forced entry into the two-story dwelling, which is surrounded by a 1.5-meter-high wall.

Col Nos noted that the Vice-Governor’s home, which was unattended at the time of the break-in, was subject to routine checks by patrol police while he was away.

Volunteer police who were also keeping an eye on the home discovered the break-in and reported it to police on Tuesday afternoon.

V/Gov Niran told the Gazette by telephone today that he was informed of the break-in by Phuket Provincial Police Deputy Commander Pol Col Chalit Thintanee.

Returning to Phuket last night, he found a pistol, seven Buddha amulets, an electronic dictionary and an unspecified sum of cash were missing.

“I think the thieves are teenagers,” he said.

The theft is not the first time thieves have targeted the residence of a high-ranking provincial official.

In September 2002, a 17-year-old hairdresser stole an envelope containing 50,000 baht from the residence of then-Governor Pongpayome Vasaputi.