The video was posted on social media and Somchai Kraipan, 43, was forced to face the music for his overt threat.
He was detained and taken to Bang Lamung Police Station on Tuesday night (June 19) for questioning.
The video clip was recorded at Na Kluea Beach in Bang Lamung district, in the Pattaya area, on Tuesday morning and uploaded on Facebook at 11:30am by user Wicha Tham.
It was a recording of a short conversation between a tour guide and the vendor.
The vendor was heard asking the guide to pay 200 yuan (about B1,000) for a crocodile leather wallet a member of the Chinese tour group wanted to buy. The guide refused, and asked why he had to pay.
The vendor said the tourist had already bargained the price and was waiting for the guide to pay it.
The Chinese-speaking guide then asked the tourist about the matter.
The vendor became upset and vented his frustration at the group. He threatened to get a gun and shoot them for being “kuan teen”, a rude word roughly translated as stirring the temper. The guide and his group immediately left the beach.
The guide later asked Tourist Police Bureau deputy chief Maj Gen Surachet Hakpan to solve the problem, saying it had tarnished Pattaya’s image as a tourist attraction.
Lt Col Piyapong Ensarn, an inspector with the Pattaya tourist police, said yesterday (June 20) that Maj Gen Surachet had ordered police to track down the vendor.
They quickly did just that.
Somchai refused to talk to the media about the case, but admitted he was at fault. He apologised for what he had done. He also appealed to the tour guide to understand that he and many other vendors lived hand to mouth. His profits barely covered his family’s daily living expenses.
Police fined him B5,000 and warned him not to do anything like it again as his actions had sullied Pattaya’s image and affected the country.
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