Picture courtesy of Khaosod.

 

A 52-year-old woman has been arrested in Khon Kaen province after she snatched a gold necklace from a gold shop and buried it in the ground near her home in a desperate attempt to evade arrest.

 

Police said the woman, identified as Sriamporn was captured within 24 hours of the theft, which occurred in Chum Phae district. Officers were able to trace her movements using CCTV footage and tracked her down to her home in Si Chomphu district, about 40km from the crime scene.

 

Upon arrest, Sriamporn confessed to the crime and led police to the buried gold necklace, weighing one baht. It had been wrapped in a baby’s nappy and sealed in a plastic bag before being buried beside her house.

 

According to Pol Col Rakchat Rueangcharoen, chief of Chum Phae police station, the suspect said she had been struggling with debts of nearly one million baht, including an 800,000 baht loan from the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC). This month alone, she was due to pay 40,000 baht in interest.

 

Driven by desperation, she said she had planned the robbery for three months, choosing the particular gold store because it was the only one that was open fronted and had female staff. She told officers she was inspired by crime scenes from television dramas and tried to replicate the tactics she had seen, though admitted she failed to consider the omnipresence of CCTV cameras.

 

Before stealing the necklace, she circled the shop three times to assess the situation. When the moment seemed right, she entered the store posing as a customer and pretended to be interested in buying a gold necklace. She then grabbed one and attempted to light a small canister filled with paper to cause a distraction, but the paper failed to ignite.

 

She quickly fled the scene, changed her clothes, and rode a motorbike with a sidecar back to Si Chomphu. She thought she had successfully evaded capture, buried the gold in the yard and planned to wait for the attention to die down before selling it.

 

During the police re-enactment of the crime, which covered three locations including the shop, the suspect apologised to the shop owner. However, police moved the proceedings along quickly due to the large number of onlookers gathered outside.

 

Police noted that Sriamporn was cooperative during the investigation and admitted to planning the crime out of financial desperation. She also revealed that, prior to committing the theft, she had even contemplated suicide due to the burden of debt, but ultimately could not go through with it.

 

The case has been submitted to Chum Phae Provincial Court for further legal proceedings.

 

 

  Adapted by Asean Now from Khoasod 2025-06-17

 

 

 

Similar cases like this will happen more and more. Household debt is at a record high. According to Grok, In the fourth quarter of 2024, the household debt-to-GDP ratio was at 88.4%. As well, Grok tells us Thailand is the second-largest economy in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia, but the income inequality is a major concern. 

 

This is not sustainable.

The 2011 first car tax rebate and borrowing to rebuild and repair after the 2011 floods set the ball in motion for rocketing household debt.

 

Covid borrowing was the cherry on top. I think HH debt reached 95% of GDP. Thailand is in a debt spiral and is now suffering from reduced domestic consumption as debt servicing is eating up more and more of their income. 

News from the neighborhood 😲 Wife told me which village she is from