| Wednesday,
November 21, 2007
Security guards arrested for theft
New Chalong Police Superintendent Col Samarn Chainarong looks
on as Club Med staff member Jessica Rachel identifies the notebook
computer stolen from her by G4S security guards Nattapong Banlang,
28, and Rattanaphum Krungkaew, 31. The investigation and arrests
on Sunday were led by Pol Lt Col Suchart Suwanpirom.
KATA: Police arrested four employees of a private security firm
for stealing valuables from the same people they were hired to
protect: guests and staff at the Club Med Phuket resort in Kata.
Chalong Police Superintendent Col Samarn Chainarong presented
the four guards to the media at a press conference at Chalong
Police Station yesterday morning
The first two presented were Nakhon Sri Thammarat native Thanawan
Wanwet, 30, and his co-worker Sommai Chusit, 40, of Phuket. They
were arrested about 9 pm last Friday by an investigation team
led by Lt Col Suchart Suwanpirom.
The pair were presented along with a Nokia N80 cellphone valued
at 14,000 baht and 3,600 baht in cash as evidence to be used against
them.
The stolen phone and money belonged to Club Med staffer Jeerasak
Ngaokrachang, 33.
Also a native of Phuket, K. Jeerasak assisted in the successful
police investigation that led to the return of his telephone after
it was sold for 4,000 baht at the Ole Mobile Phone Shop on Patak
Rd in Rawai.
The two guards, both employed by the Group 4 Securicor (G4S) office
on the bypass road, are now being held at Phuket Provincial Court
in Rassada.
The second pair were identified as Nakhon Sri Thammarat natives
Nattapong Banlang, 28, and Rattanaphum Krungkaew, 31. They were
arrested by the same investigation team late Sunday night for
swiping a 50,000-baht notebook computer belonging to 26-year-old
Jessica Rachel, a Club Med employee from the US.
The computer went missing after she had placed it on a table in
a changing room for entertainers on Friday. She noticed it had
disappeared about 11 am the following day, she said.
Ms Rachel immediately suspected security staff and filed a report
with Chalong Police, who quickly learned that the image of a man
who tried to sell a used notebook computer at a shop in the area
had been captured by the store’s CCTV camera.
According to the press release, when investigators approached
Nattapong at 10:30 pm on Sunday at the PTT service station in
Karon, he asked them: “Who are you coming to arrest?”
“We are coming to arrest you,” an officer replied.
The press release said that Nattapong immediately confessed and
later led police to Rattanaphum’s home in Soi Koktanode
in Chalong, where he was arrested.
The men sold the computer for 10,000 baht at the Mala Video shop
and split the proceeds, much of which had already been spent,
the press release said.
Without specifying names, the police report noted that some of
the suspects’ urine turned purple during a drug test, indicating
that they had recently used ya bah (methamphetamine).
The report also said that a background check had revealed that
some of the suspects had criminal cases pending against them in
Appeals Courts in other provinces.
The press release ended with Col Samarn urging private security
firms to conduct thorough police background checks before hiring
new staff and advising hotels to install CCTV cameras.
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