Police joined forces to arrest thieves who broke into government offices throughout the Northeast, focusing on hospitals and schools. They confessed that they used the money to buy drugs and gamble online. In September alone, they committed more than 20 crimes.
CCTV footage captured the perpetrator, a man aged 25-30, smashing the ceiling and rappelling down to break open a cash drawer in a grocery store at a hospital in Ubon Ratchathani Province and stealing from a grocery store at a community hospital in a nearby area at the end of August. It took police more than a month to identify the perpetrator, Mr. Sathit, aged 27, from Yasothon.
From the CCTV examination, it was found that it was the same person who committed the crime at Khueang Nai Hospital, Muang Samsib Hospital, Ubon Ratchathani Province, Leing Nok Tha Hospital, and Pa Tio Hospital, Yasothon Province. After checking his history, he had been arrested and prosecuted 9 times, 7 times for property-related crimes and 2 times for drug-related crimes.
Therefore, evidence was collected to request an arrest warrant from the Ubon Ratchathani Provincial Court to arrest Mr. Sathit on the side of a public road in Ban Kham Phai Nuea, Village 4, Kham Phai Subdistrict, Thai Charoen District, Yasothon Province, on charges of theft in a government office at night by entering through a passage that was not intended to be an entrance for people, using a vehicle to facilitate the commission of the crime or taking the property away or to avoid arrest, along with evidence of clothing and a bag used on the day of the crime. Mr. Sathit confessed that he was the person in the arrest warrant.
The latest at 8:00 p.m. (4 October) while the officers were taking him to reenact his confession at Khueng Nai Hospital, Mr. Sathit told reporters that he works as a general laborer but does not have enough money to spend due to addiction to methamphetamine and online gambling. Therefore, he goes around stealing from government offices, especially community hospitals, because there will
be relatives of patients sleeping outside the building, schools, and grocery stores. He will travel throughout the Northeast and Central regions. In August, he committed crimes in Ubon Ratchathani, Yasothon, Sisaket, Saraburi, and Nakhon Ratchasima provinces. Most recently, he kicked the glass of a school in Roi Et Province, but accidentally cut himself and was injured. Therefore, he returned to rest at his home in Yasothon Province before being arrested. In September alone, he committed more than 20 crimes.
Initially, he was taken into custody at Muang Sam Sip Police Station, where Khueang Nai Police Station will detain him for further legal proceedings before sending him to Ubon Ratchathani Provincial Court for detention tomorrow.
Source: Thai News Agency