Three men posing as customers stole $1.7 million worth of jewels from a Bangkok gems fair over the weekend in what police Monday called the biggest heist in recent memory in Thailand.

The men entered a booth at the Bangkok Gems & Jewelry Fair on Saturday and asked the vendor to open a display case containing nearly 100 items with a reported value of 56 million baht ($1.7 million), then distracted her and ran off with it, said police Lt. Col. Pairote Rattanamanee, in charge of the investigation.

It was not immediately clear how the men, believed to be unarmed and of Middle Eastern descent, managed to slip past security at the fair's convention hall, located near the Thai capital, he said.

The booth's vendors described the trio as clean-shaven, handsome, roughly in their 40s and wearing white dress shirts and dark trousers at the time of the theft, Pairote said. Video footage indicated they had two male accomplices.

Apiwat Tiyasuksawat, the vendor who filed the complaint, told Thai media the case contained 60 rings, 28 bracelets, four necklaces and five amulets.

The most expensive items were a ruby and mixed gem ring worth 2 million baht ($60,000) and a variety of ruby and emerald earrings, said Sittaya Tiyasuksawat, the vendor's sister.

"From what I can tell, this could be the biggest gem theft ever reported to Thai police," said police investigator Lt. Ekkaman Lueruang.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?artic...bCategoryId=200

Except the Saudi thing probably. I wonder if they called the police or assumed the police already knew about it...

(edited to remove the quote so the mods will love me).

Edited September 21, 200916 yr by KevinBloodyWilson

Interesting that the story that stole all the Thai headlines away from the little red and yellow shindigs took a while to make it to the English language media.

Ok, the bets are on.

Which one of the police generals wife's is going to wear a ruby and mixed gem ring.

$1.7 M worth? A couple more times like that and the Saudis will have taken back what the Thai stole 20 years ago.

Maybe a way for Abi (he suggested to the policemen to turn a blind eye) to make peace with the Saudis who are still angry about this story.

And just how did they distract her...? "Hey, look at that!" "Huh?" And then they ran? Or just sauntered away to attract no attention...

Handsome?

Something is very fishy about this story.

Something is very fishy about this story.

Well thats what i thought, insurance ? .

I don't know about Saturday, as this is the day supposed to be open to the public, but on the previous days you are required to present ID (passport, or Thai ID card) and they photograph you with your ID, before you enter.

Does anyone know if this procedure changes on the open to public days?

There is normally security guards and military police everywhere - did the vendor scream or make a noise at all?

could be the biggest gem theft ever reported to Thai police," said police investigator Lt. Ekkaman Lueruang.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?artic...bCategoryId=200

All the others have been tucked away!

Ok, the bets are on.

Which one of the police generals wife's is going to wear a ruby and mixed gem ring.

I wonder if she will have them appraised and find out they are actually low quality like the ones foisted on tourists

Wonder if there was a blue diamond in there somewhere.

To solve a case like this - we need to call up only the best.

How do 3 people run away from that big hall without attracting the slightest bit of attention?

How do 3 people steal the contents of the showcase, walk, run, fly to the entrance which takes about 5 - 10 minutes and the salesgirl never saw anything missing until the 3 men were well away form the building?

Did she fall asleep? Was she out to lunch? Was she watching the television like most good Thai girls do? Or was she paid to look elsewhere for an hour?

Inside job!

See http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Foreginers-A...iv-t300641.html for the latest updates.

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