Lone Gunman Makes Away With 200,000 Baht In Bangkok Bank Robbery

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Lone Gunman Makes Away with 200,000 Baht in Bangkok Bank Robbery

BANGKOK: -- A lone gunman has robbed 200,000 baht from Thanachart Bank in Wongsawang area of Bangkok. He was also suspected of planning for another bank robbery nearby.

At around 6:30 PM yesterday, there was a robbery at a Thanachart Bank branch in Wongsawang area of Bangkok.

According to a teller, the robber is a male, approximately 170 centimeters tall, wearing a beige jacket and a motorcycle helmet.

He was also armed with a gun.

The robber reportedly held the bank workers at gunpoint and ordered them to stuff cash from their drawers into his plastic bag.

In the three-minute robbery, he took about 200,000 baht before leaving the bank.

According to the witnesses, the robber also attempted to rob an Ayutthaya Bank branch nearby but could not open the door.

Afterward, he turned to an adjacent Siam Commercial Bank branch but changed his mind after seeing security guards at the entrance, before fleeing the scene on a motorcycle, heading toward Rama VII Bridge.

The police believe that the robbery was committed by the man alone.

The investigation team will also determine the exact amount of cash taken from the bank and review the videos from surveillance cameras installed around the scene and along the escape route.

-- Tan Network 2012-05-30

[ratcatcher]

According to a teller, the robber is a male, approximately 170 centimeters tall, wearing a beige jacket and a motorcycle helmet.

They forget to mention he was a Thai man. May make tracking him difficult unless he's seen at an expensive karaoke buying drinks for all his mates. Good luck to the cops.

[moe666]

Unless he tells someone he will probably go free as no one to rat him out. Have they caught the lone robber of the Kbank several months ago that one was 700,000baht

[LucidLucifer]

.....another bent copper perhaps?

[Payboy]

Here we go again with the identification process.

[trainman34014]

Surprises me there are not Bank robberies every day in Thailand. Security is crap, as are most of the guards who are normally over 60, reading the paper, taking a piss, or outside around the back somewhere talking to another guard from the Bank next door !

[OzMick]

3 on the trot seems a bit over-ambitious to me. Was he smart enough NOT to use his own bike, or borrow one from a friend.

[laurentbkk]

How shocking for Thailand image to have such people robbing banks ... I wonder if the ministry of interior will complain about this terrible things.

[psmiller]

I wonder when the banks will put their cameras down at eye level so you can get a decent picture of whats going on.

[Payboy]

The investigation team will also determine the exact amount of cash taken from the bank

It's not 200000 baht? Let me see, if it was 200005 baht the robber could have escaped on the bus.

Edited May 30, 2012 by Payboy

[sjjmmi]

Thailand the HUB of bank robbers

[gand]

How shocking for Thailand image to have such people robbing banks ... I wonder if the ministry of interior will complain about this terrible things.

The bank robber made no comments about buying fake Rolex watches?

[BigJohnson]

I have seem ATM machines being filled with money that is sitting in open bags on the sidewalk; banks that have no security measures and drunken tourists flashing wads of cash...even the "World's Dumbest Criminals" could easily pull off a robbery here and get away with it.

[Bagwan]

"The robber reportedly held the bank workers at gunpoint and ordered them to stuff cash from their drawers into his plastic bag."

How many bank employees keep cash in their drawers? Do the fellas keep a reserve in their Y fronts?

Thai journalism strikes again.

[how241]

I have seem ATM machines being filled with money that is sitting in open bags on the sidewalk; banks that have no security measures and drunken tourists flashing wads of cash...even the "World's Dumbest Criminals" could easily pull off a robbery here and get away with it.

They will catch him after he brags to all his friends.

[amrishtony]

A lot can be said and done, but nothing is said, its ONLY DONE.....Done by the robbers not by the banks by increasing more security measures...

[Suradit69]

Here we go again with the identification process.

At least in England the identification process is aided by the intelligence of the robbers.

A 'stupid' robber was caught within minutes of stealing £25,000 from a bank when he fled to his own house across the road.

Christopher Walker is today starting a jail sentence after he attacked a security guard with a stick and took the money in broad daylight.

Witnesses watched as he then sprinted into his home across the road from the Lloyds TSB bank in Birmingham's Lea Village.

Walker, 19, was jailed for two-and-a-half years at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday after admitting robbery on October 22.

The hearing was told it was an 'incompetent spur of the moment robbery'.

Judge Sylvia De Bertodano ruled: 'What makes this so serious is the significant amount of money involved, the use of a disguise and the use of a weapon to hit a security guard who is entitled to go about his work without fear of attack.'

But she added: 'I accept that you are sorry and that it was not planned. Temptation overcame you.'

Edited May 30, 2012 by Suradit69

[Colabamumbai]

Maybe he was born in Thailand.

[tragickingdom]

The police can narrow the suspect base down to Expat teachers. 200,000 Baht must be a year salary for them. If it was a Thai robber, he must have been drunk.

[Reasonableman]

a security guard who is entitled to go about his work without fear of attack...??? Shouldn't they be aware of the possibility, even likelihood, that they will be the first ones to be attacked, if they are in the way during a robbery? Would have thought it comes with the territory....

[Payboy]

a security guard who is entitled to go about his work without fear of attack...???

Maybe it was the BTS guard at his inactive post.

[Suradit69]

I wonder when the banks will put their cameras down at eye level so you can get a decent picture of whats going on.

At eye level it would also be at smashing, disabling, stealing level, although maybe a few dummy cameras at eye level would discourage some robbers.

a security guard who is entitled to go about his work without fear of attack...??? Shouldn't they be aware of the possibility, even likelihood, that they will be the first ones to be attacked, if they are in the way during a robbery? Would have thought it comes with the territory....

I think in the UK bank guards are hired to keep the deposit slips available, chat up the customers and to drink tea.

The British judge may not be the brightest person on the bench. She seems to think that since this git struck the guard and stole the money only after being overcome by temptation, that that should be considered a mitigating factor. And he did say he was sorry. Got to love these farangs.

a security guard who is entitled to go about his work without fear of attack...???

Maybe it was the BTS guard at his inactive post.

I doubt a BTS guard would have been hired by a Lloyds Bank in England.

Edited May 30, 2012 by Suradit69

[ANTIRACIST]

soon they will say he is a foreigner

[mca]

Here we go again with the identification process.

Well at least they've narrowed it down to either a welder or a Cylon.

[fxe1200]

Here we go again with the identification process.

...looks more like a farang with a Thai passport.

[gand]

Did the robber speak fluent Thai?

[LuckyLew]

"According to the witnesses, the robber also attempted to rob an Ayutthaya Bank branch nearby but could not open the door."

He can hold a gun and can plan an escape route

but he cannot figure out how to open a door

I really cannot see this person avoiding arrest

[BrianCR]

I have seem ATM machines being filled with money that is sitting in open bags on the sidewalk; banks that have no security measures and drunken tourists flashing wads of cash...even the "World's Dumbest Criminals" could easily pull off a robbery here and get away with it.

Perhaps your statement only goes to show what many people living here believe that, Thai people are not quite as criminally minded as their counterparts in the West?

[Payboy]

"According to the witnesses, the robber also attempted to rob an Ayutthaya Bank branch nearby but could not open the door."

He can hold a gun and can plan an escape route

but he cannot figure out how to open a door

I really cannot see this person avoiding arrest

Hey, if a large Malaysian lady can do it, then he can do it too.

Edited May 30, 2012 by Payboy

[cdnski12]

I have seem ATM machines being filled with money that is sitting in open bags on the sidewalk; banks that have no security measures and drunken tourists flashing wads of cash...even the "World's Dumbest Criminals" could easily pull off a robbery here and get away with it.

Same, Same. Even in my small Issan Town, I have seen motorcycle couriers wandering off c/w 750,000 ThB in a backpack. No security whatsoever. The only saving thing is pehaps the long ticketed lineups to the cashier. I've only just begun to see some security @ Banks in Malls in Udon. Perhaps a step in the right direction. However I doubt the chubby, retired Military Guy/Policeman could do much to stop an armed , Yabba snorting criminal? I am never comfortable taking 20K ThB from a streetside ATM, c/w the local neighbourhood breathing down my neck.