On the 2nd September 2009 a man robbed the Siam City Bank [SCIB] in Future Park Rangsit shopping mall of over 100,000 baht. He escaped into nearby bushes but was later caught red handed with the money in his underpants.
Patumthani police investigator Pol.Lt.Col. Sakorn Jermkuntod was alerted by the bank staff and dispatched a team to investigate.
The bank is located on the ground floor of the Major Goldsmith shop zone of the mall, Future Park Rangsit , which is around 100 metres from a police box.
A member of the bank staff, Miss Getsirin Keawthanee [25], who had the misfortune to face the robber, said that she and another three friends had been working behind the counter servicing a customer.
Suddenly, a man with a black woolly hat covering his face and dark cream coloured clothing and gloves pushed the door open and ran to the counter. Ketsirin said she shouted at him, “What are you doing?”, but the man didn’t stop. He jumped onto the counter and the four women ran away to the back of the bank, shouting for help.
Miss Kesirin went on to say that they saw the man open the cash drawer and take some money and put it into a brown leather bag and then run out of an exit at the back of the bank. Some bank staff ran in pursuit but the man disappeared into some bushes behind the mall.
Mr. Paiboon Plapol [29], from Roi-et, said he was sitting in his shop selling Buddha images when he heard someone screaming for help. He and some mall security guards ran after the man and managed to track him down in the bushes but unfortunately the robber used pepper spray on their faces so they were forced to let him go.
Meanwhile, police and security guards had cordoned off the area and carried out a search. They found some clothes, which police kept as evidence, but no money.
Not far from the area, they accidentally came across a foreign man who was acting in a suspicious manner. The police detained him for questioning. The man, who was later identified as Mr. Harold [54], an American national, denied any connection with the robbery and said he was just walking around.
Police Major General Wittaya Prayongpan said some witnesses had seen Mr. Harold wandering around the bushes two days before the incident and the police decided to send the clothes to test for traces of his DNA.
Mr. Suratut Nakwatchara, the bank manager, and Miss Kesirin later identified the clothes found in the bushes as those worn by the robber.
Mr. Harold continued to plead innocent but the police ignored his claim and a check of the CCTV footage confirmed that he was indeed the robber.
Finally, Mr. Harold was forced to change his clothes to try on those worn by the robber. When he took off his trousers the police spotted the cash (148,600 baht) hidden in his underpants. Mr. Harold then realized he’d reached a dead end and confessed to the crime.
He was charged with robbery with a weapon.
Source - Pattaya Daily News
Worth a mention this is as it's very unusual to see this kind of story with a farang robbing a bank, certainly somewhere like Rangsit, must say, I'm surprised. That's a real desperate move. What a complete idiot to try that.
Pete