Thief’s fiery hand sanitiser ploy nets 1.7 million baht loot from Bangkok gold shop

[snoop1130]

 

In a daring solo heist, a robber invaded a gold shop in the Saimai area of Bangkok. Threatening to torch the shop by sprinkling hand sanitiser all around, the brazen thief caused shop staff to scatter, enabling him to pilfer gold worth 1.7 million baht, amounting to 48 baht of gold. The incident happened at 6.50pm yesterday. Bangkok police are prioritising this chase.

 

Saimai Police Station yesterday at around 6.50pm received a report of a burglary at the Aurora gold shop, located inside the Big C supermarket along Sukhaphiban 5 Road, in the Ornguen district of Saimai, Bangkok. Police Lieutenant Colonel Viroj Boonpol, the Deputy Crime Investigation Officer of Saimai Police Station, and Police Lieutenant Colonel Sanchai Kirirat worked together with the investigation team and the criminal investigation branch to head to the scene.

 

Upon arriving, they found the staff noticeably distressed. One of the workers described the robber as a stout man, who had donned an all-black attire, complete with a black baseball cap. Acting as a customer, he threatened to torch the shop by sprinkling hand sanitiser all around, which led to the staff retreating in panic. Seizing the opportunity, the thief clambered over the counter, grabbed gold and cash from a drawer and fled the scene, reported KhaoSod.

 

By Nattapong Westwood

Caption: Picture courtesy of ตนข่าว แปลงยาว คนข่าวจิตอาสา Facebook

 

Full Story: https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/crime/bangkok-gold-shop-heist-sees-1-7-million-baht-score-using-hand-sanitiser-threat

 

-- © Copyright Thaiger 2023-08-10

 

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[ignore it]

Got clean away.

and sanitized too

he he

[hotchilli]

At 6:50 pm probably needed a clean-up

[brianthainess]

Did the staff know it was sanitizer? Was it already there? 

Sanitizer is normally a gel, not pure alcohol, and it doesn't burn like petrol. 

[BangkokReady]

Interesting tactic.  I guess the creative and quick thinking Thai criminal can probably come up with any number of ways to take advantage of the fact that Thais are generally completely unprepared for various everyday occurrences.  A single fire extinguisher could have rendered this assault completely ineffective.

 

On 8/10/2023 at 4:34 PM, snoop1130 said:

burglary

*robbery

[BangkokReady]

7 hours ago, brianthainess said:

Did the staff know it was sanitizer? Was it already there? 

Sanitizer is normally a gel, not pure alcohol, and it doesn't burn like petrol. 

Most Thais believe in magic, ghosts, fortune tellers and fate.  Believing that something with a high alcohol content is highly flammable seems quite likely.