Bt5m Theft Stuns Siam Paragon

[george]

Bt5m theft stuns Siam Paragon

BANGKOK: -- A Bt5-million diamond necklace was stolen from Siam Paragon yesterday in the first theft case since the opening of the luxury shopping centre in central Bangkok on December 9.

Naran Thammawaranukhup said he discovered the 51-karat necklace was missing after a group of foreigners had visited his shop, the Blue River Diamond located in the mall’s Hall of Mirror zone.

He rushed to Pathum Wan police station to report the crime.

An investigator from the station said the store’s security camera filmed a group of five Middle-Easterners – one woman and four men.

“They came in the shop separately and pretended to select items, spending around 10 minutes before leaving.

“Some of them might have asked the sales clerk to let them get a closer look at the necklace, which provided an opening for them to make off with the piece,” the officer said.

“We will select the best shot from the closed circuit camera for further investigation and arrest,” he said.

--The Nation 2006-02-24

[Maejo Man]

Bt5m theft stuns Siam Paragon

He rushed to Pathum Wan police station to report the crime.

......said he discovered the 51-karat necklace was missing after......

“Some of them might have asked the sales clerk to let them get a closer look at the necklace, which provided an opening for them to make off with the piece,” the officer said

--The Nation 2006-02-24

Rushed to the police station!!! If I had lost 5 million, I would have been on the phone straight away, far quicker

".....might have asked to get a closer look........an opening to make off with the piece"

Well did they or didn't they? It should all be on CCTV

When did you last meet a Thai that would leave you alone with a 5 million baht necklace? Then discover it missing after you had gone?

All sounds extremely strange anchovie flavoured to me

[Heng]

Sounds like what that tv presenter named Ma (the girlfriend of the daughter of the Oishi group) tried to pull with her jewelry being stolen from the Plaza Athenee parking garage not too long ago. Insurance!

[Thaising]

Insurance will covered the lost jewellery with FREE medias PUBLICITY. Kill two birds with one stone.

[raybkk]

Insurance will covered the lost jewellery with FREE medias PUBLICITY. Kill two birds with one stone.

According to the Thai news the shop wasn't insured against theft yet as the shop was just opened. It my me laugh when I heard that.

[Heng]

It makes no difference with the insurance company if you tell the press that you weren't covered. One of our tenants burned down a building we were leasing to them as a restaurant (in the US). We certainly didn't announce to everyone in the investigation and aftermath that we were well insured on the property - we wanted them to focus on the tenants... who were found guilty because we told the investigators to question them as to why they removed the Buddhist shrine from the property before the incident.... they tripped themselves up when they tried to say that Buddhists regularly move their shrines around for cleaning.

[thaipro_pattaya]

It makes no difference with the insurance company if you tell the press that you weren't covered. One of our tenants burned down a building we were leasing to them as a restaurant (in the US). We certainly didn't announce to everyone in the investigation and aftermath that we were well insured on the property - we wanted them to focus on the tenants... who were found guilty because we told the investigators to question them as to why they removed the Buddhist shrine from the property before the incident.... they tripped themselves up when they tried to say that Buddhists regularly move their shrines around for cleaning.

That's was a smart move Heng

[thaigene2]

Hey Heng

What do you know about this Thammawaranukhup family? Think they were having trouble paying the rent in this new place? Perhaps another in the long line of failed 'business plans' crafted by a grand-son with an MBA from some US university earned through plagarism?? He, He..

Siam Paragon..yes it will be as successful as Gaysorn I'll bet..six months from now you could fire a cannon down the main hall on a Saturday afternoon and not hit anyone.

[Maigo6]

Always amusing to see how many posters here blame Thai people for anything that goes wrong, Thai people can never win in your superior mind can they.

If the theft had been from a Farang run shop, you would have been slagging off Arabs or whatever they were, because its a Thai run business, you just stick to your normal routine of Thai Bashing.

I am happy that Thai people are not as racist as you lot, I doubt many of us would be in thailand.

Amazing.

[Maejo Man]

Always amusing to see how many posters here blame Thai people for anything that goes wrong, Thai people can never win in your superior mind can they.

Amazing.

Not one poster said anyone was to blame, just some light humour concerning the extremely odd circumstances. Knowing how cautious Thais are with anything valuable, it seemed rather strange that they would let a 5 million baht necklace vanish in front of them. More understandable from a western owned and managed extablishment.

If you need to make a cross for yourself Maigo6 you're doing fine a fine job

[Maigo6]

Always amusing to see how many posters here blame Thai people for anything that goes wrong, Thai people can never win in your superior mind can they.

Amazing.

Not one poster said anyone was to blame, just some light humour concerning the extremely odd circumstances. Knowing how cautious Thais are with anything valuable, it seemed rather strange that they would let a 5 million baht necklace vanish in front of them. More understandable from a western owned and managed extablishment.

If you need to make a cross for yourself Maigo6 you're doing fine a fine job

Yea and the 40 Million Pound job that was done last week in UK was done by Thais as well, don't forget, Farangs are so great.............so great that most have been caught already.........but never mind eh lads, as long as it is not a Thai we can all feel superior.

I as an ex con can only feeel sorry for u guyz, u r pitiful.

[Heng]

Hey Heng

What do you know about this Thammawaranukhup family? Think they were having trouble paying the rent in this new place? Perhaps another in the long line of failed 'business plans' crafted by a grand-son with an MBA from some US university earned through plagarism?? He, He..

Siam Paragon..yes it will be as successful as Gaysorn I'll bet..six months from now you could fire a cannon down the main hall on a Saturday afternoon and not hit anyone.

No idea who you're talking about. And if they could afford the seng, I think they can afford the rent (which I think had to be paid in advance anyway).

As for your analysis, they were saying the same about Emporium way back when. Gaysorn is another family entirely.

[TBWG]

[

Yea and the 40 Million Pound job that was done last week in UK was done by Thais as well, don't forget, Farangs are so great.............so great that most have been caught already.........but never mind eh lads, as long as it is not a Thai we can all feel superior.

I as an ex con can only feeel sorry for u guyz, u r pitiful.

Hey Maigo6

Where were you last Thursday?

Have it on good authority attachment is dead ringer for you,

Crap haircut, need to change your barber!!

TBWG

[steveromagnino]

Hey Heng

What do you know about this Thammawaranukhup family? Think they were having trouble paying the rent in this new place? Perhaps another in the long line of failed 'business plans' crafted by a grand-son with an MBA from some US university earned through plagarism?? He, He..

Siam Paragon..yes it will be as successful as Gaysorn I'll bet..six months from now you could fire a cannon down the main hall on a Saturday afternoon and not hit anyone.

First up, you might like to look at how many lease renewals Gaysorn has; which tenants did not move or shut down when they renewed, and you could also look at the ownership structure of Gaysorn (49% hongkong Land, you know them right, the most important landlords in HK for retail space right?).

It is pretty obvious that you can't put the two together in one sentence.

As for your 'cannon' analogy, luxury apparel does not require and is not interested in volumes of people, it is only interested in the right people. Your cannon approach would be perhaps best kept for Roti Boy, mass market stuff and, er, sales of cannons

My guess is this might not be insurance; it is commonplace to allow people to see and examine jewelry upclose, and with a little bustle...well let's just say it isn't the first time this scam has been pulled here. Or most other countries for that matter.

[astral]

Reminiscent of the Saudi Jewels scam back in the early 90's.

They never did recover all the items, but some were said to have been

worn by high Thai official's wives at a later date.

[steveromagnino]

Reminiscent of the Saudi Jewels scam back in the early 90's.

They never did recover all the items, but some were said to have been

worn by high Thai official's wives at a later date.

Actually they recovered them, then it was discovered that many were fakes; It took down the Adireksarn family....

[Johpa]

Reminiscent of the Saudi Jewels scam back in the early 90's.

They never did recover all the items, but some were said to have been

worn by high Thai official's wives at a later date.

The only commonality is that both events involved jewelry. The Saudi theft involved an inside employee, a house employee, stealing from a homeowner, a Saudi Prince, apparently at the urging of others who are hinted to be of very high standing in Thai society. One of the stolen royal jewelry pieces was indeed seen in a photograph published in the social pages of a Hong Kong newspaper adorning the wife of an influential member of Thai society. A fake copy of that piece was later anonymously turned into the Royal Thai Police. There were several very high profile murders in Thailand connected to this case, including of course a key witness or two. I no longer remember all the details of this scandal, but rumors persist that only the geographical location of the items has changed.

The Paragon theft is either a group of creative thieves or perhaps an insurance scam, and fortunately for Thailand no suggestion of royal ownership is ascribed to the newly missing jewelry.

[DisainaM]

No, I don`t think, that the situation looks fishy.

The shopowner wouldn`t report the newspaper,

that he phoned 3 times the police, and nobody was coming along,

cause not even the police knows the different sections of the siam paragon pretty well,

so the shopowner has to go to the police.

The siam paragon is too big and the police doesn`t search around in this new complex for a shop,

so it is ok, to go to the police.

Another point, if you are a companyowner, you have also the problem, to check out,

who wants to fool you, middle east arabs, or a fishy member of your staff,

or is someone, who offers you a security contract, behind ?

And if this is not enough, you have to keep in mind, that your tax books are correct,

and that all the stolen products can be sourced out from your books.

No, could be real

[steveromagnino]

Reminiscent of the Saudi Jewels scam back in the early 90's.

They never did recover all the items, but some were said to have been

worn by high Thai official's wives at a later date.

The only commonality is that both events involved jewelry. The Saudi theft involved an inside employee, a house employee, stealing from a homeowner, a Saudi Prince, apparently at the urging of others who are hinted to be of very high standing in Thai society. One of the stolen royal jewelry pieces was indeed seen in a photograph published in the social pages of a Hong Kong newspaper adorning the wife of an influential member of Thai society. A fake copy of that piece was later anonymously turned into the Royal Thai Police. There were several very high profile murders in Thailand connected to this case, including of course a key witness or two. I no longer remember all the details of this scandal, but rumors persist that only the geographical location of the items has changed.

The Paragon theft is either a group of creative thieves or perhaps an insurance scam, and fortunately for Thailand no suggestion of royal ownership is ascribed to the newly missing jewelry.

As I recall, in more detail, it was something like this.

The house employee smuggled out 500MB jewelry in pieces of fruit, and ended up with a LOT of jewelry. The prince then fuond out, and demanded return of the jewels, including the blue diamond which was the major item; actually I think he didn't mind for the rest but this one is one of the world's famous diamonds.

The police in Thailand did a major hunt, and recovered and returned them. After this, it was established that some of the items returned were fakes. A number of photographs of 'society' wives (mostly police, soldiers, politicians and alledgedly one other wive of someone) matched the pictures of various diamonds stolen, but it the women involved gave testimony that they had bought fakes at Pratunam.

The forger was taken hostage with his family, by a couple of policemen, but he refused to give details of the information, due to the high powered connections of the people who had asked him to do the work. I think his family were executed as a result, and he went to jail, but without admitting who ordered him to do the copies. The police involved also went to jail too.

The chief of police at the time was Adireksarn (I cannot remember his first name) and the outcome was the Saudi Arabia suspended diplomatic ties including sending the Thai workers back home - 150,000 of them if I recall correctly.

Chavalit solved the situation (55555) by saying no one should ever speak of this again; thus somewhat absolving any of the hi so big hair brigade from having to own up and return their ill gotten gains. There is possibly more to it than that, as there is alledgedly a photo of the wife of a person wearing a diamond from the Prince who could not be allowed to be shown wearing it if you get what I mean, hence the need for a cover up at massive cost to Thailand and specifically the rural workers who had been well paid in SA.

[Johpa]

Reminiscent of the Saudi Jewels scam back in the early 90's.

They never did recover all the items, but some were said to have been

worn by high Thai official's wives at a later date.

The only commonality is that both events involved jewelry. The Saudi theft involved an inside employee, a house employee, stealing from a homeowner, a Saudi Prince, apparently at the urging of others who are hinted to be of very high standing in Thai society. One of the stolen royal jewelry pieces was indeed seen in a photograph published in the social pages of a Hong Kong newspaper adorning the wife of an influential member of Thai society. A fake copy of that piece was later anonymously turned into the Royal Thai Police. There were several very high profile murders in Thailand connected to this case, including of course a key witness or two. I no longer remember all the details of this scandal, but rumors persist that only the geographical location of the items has changed.

The Paragon theft is either a group of creative thieves or perhaps an insurance scam, and fortunately for Thailand no suggestion of royal ownership is ascribed to the newly missing jewelry.

As I recall, in more detail, it was something like this.

The house employee smuggled out 500MB jewelry in pieces of fruit, and ended up with a LOT of jewelry. The prince then fuond out, and demanded return of the jewels, including the blue diamond which was the major item; actually I think he didn't mind for the rest but this one is one of the world's famous diamonds.

The police in Thailand did a major hunt, and recovered and returned them. After this, it was established that some of the items returned were fakes. A number of photographs of 'society' wives (mostly police, soldiers, politicians and alledgedly one other wive of someone) matched the pictures of various diamonds stolen, but it the women involved gave testimony that they had bought fakes at Pratunam.

The forger was taken hostage with his family, by a couple of policemen, but he refused to give details of the information, due to the high powered connections of the people who had asked him to do the work. I think his family were executed as a result, and he went to jail, but without admitting who ordered him to do the copies. The police involved also went to jail too.

The chief of police at the time was Adireksarn (I cannot remember his first name) and the outcome was the Saudi Arabia suspended diplomatic ties including sending the Thai workers back home - 150,000 of them if I recall correctly.

Chavalit solved the situation (55555) by saying no one should ever speak of this again; thus somewhat absolving any of the hi so big hair brigade from having to own up and return their ill gotten gains. There is possibly more to it than that, as there is alledgedly a photo of the wife of a person wearing a diamond from the Prince who could not be allowed to be shown wearing it if you get what I mean, hence the need for a cover up at massive cost to Thailand and specifically the rural workers who had been well paid in SA.

Someone really needs to write a book about this case before all the details fade, or are forced from public memory. I think, and I may be wrong here, that no items were "found" by the Thai police and returned until after the celebrated photo showed a Thai buffonted one clearly wearing a piece of the stolen royal accessories was published in the Hong Kong newspaper at which point no amount of lies could save much face. At this point Thailand's reputation as a corrupt, insignificant skanky petty kingdom reached such a nadir in the international community that those lower down on the top tier of the social totem pole were forced by those one wrung up to anonymously return some of the lesser loot. And as the previous poster alluded, some of the items "found" were found to be fake copies.

And then there is the case of the two Saudi "business" men gunned down in Bangkok who were also somehow involved in this messy affair. Exactly how these two gents were connected to the theft was never made explicitly clear.

Chalavit may have muzzled public discussion of this matter, but Thais in the social tiers below those who make the social pages of Hong Kong newspapers still love to gossip and speculate as to the exact, and I mean exact whereabouts of the royal jewels.

Ah, Thailand in the 1980s when the scandals still involved individual machinations and not the obfuscated corporate plunderings of current times.

[phuketsiam]

and the Saudi's still do not allow Thai labour in Saudi Arabia to this day

[limbos]

Always amusing to see how many posters here blame Thai people for anything that goes wrong, Thai people can never win in your superior mind can they.

If the theft had been from a Farang run shop, you would have been slagging off Arabs or whatever they were, because its a Thai run business, you just stick to your normal routine of Thai Bashing.

I am happy that Thai people are not as racist as you lot, I doubt many of us would be in thailand.

Amazing.

Wow, can you explain that one please?

[Maigo6]

[

Yea and the 40 Million Pound job that was done last week in UK was done by Thais as well, don't forget, Farangs are so great.............so great that most have been caught already.........but never mind eh lads, as long as it is not a Thai we can all feel superior.

I as an ex con can only feeel sorry for u guyz, u r pitiful.

Hey Maigo6

Where were you last Thursday?

Have it on good authority attachment is dead ringer for you,

Crap haircut, need to change your barber!!

TBWG

That picture does me no Justice at all, they should have at least made me look handsome, the hairs a wig.

Always amusing to see how many posters here blame Thai people for anything that goes wrong, Thai people can never win in your superior mind can they.

If the theft had been from a Farang run shop, you would have been slagging off Arabs or whatever they were, because its a Thai run business, you just stick to your normal routine of Thai Bashing.

I am happy that Thai people are not as racist as you lot, I doubt many of us would be in thailand.

Amazing.

Wow, can you explain that one please?

Yes, I'll try, here I go:

"I am happy that Thai people are not as racist as you lot "

[TBWG]

[

Yea and the 40 Million Pound job that was done last week in UK was done by Thais as well, don't forget, Farangs are so great.............so great that most have been caught already.........but never mind eh lads, as long as it is not a Thai we can all feel superior.

I as an ex con can only feeel sorry for u guyz, u r pitiful.

Hey Maigo6

Where were you last Thursday?

Have it on good authority attachment is dead ringer for you,

Crap haircut, need to change your barber!!

TBWG

That picture does me no Justice at all, they should have at least made me look handsome, the hairs a wig.

Hi Maigo6

Can you spare the odd million, I'm a bit strapped for readies at the moment?

TBWG

[Maejo Man]

I as an ex con can only feeel sorry for u guyz, u r pitiful.

Amazing You learnt all this behind bars, wonderful to see the taxpayer's dollars at work.