Lt Col Thada Sodarak of the Chalong Police was notified of an incident by Phuket Tourist Police at 3pm yesterday (Jan 23) where it was reported that a Chinese woman named only as Ms Tangqin, 29, had had her bag stolen from a shop on Soi Ta-iad in Chalong.
Lt Col Thada said, “Ms Tangqin told us that she and her friend(s) have been staying at a resort in Soi Ta-iad. She went to a clothes shop / barbers and hung up her Adidas bag, which had an iPhone8 Plus (cost B35,000), 900 yuan in cash (B4,484), about B700 in cash, ATM card(s), ID card, hotel key(s) and a hotel deposit card, whilst she looked around the shop.
“When she went to get her bag she realised it had been stolen,” he said.
Maj Eakkachai Siri of Phuket Tourist Police added, “When we arrived at the shop we found Jirukan Ketkaew, 28, working there. She told us she didn’t know anything about the incident.
“However, officers checked CCTV from inside the shop and found that Jirukan had taken Ms Tangqin’s bag and searched inside of it.
“After being shown the evidence against her, Jirukan admitted that she had stolen the bag and that she had exchanged the 900 yuan at Tesco Lotus Chalong for B3,260. We seized the cash from her.
“She also told us that she had thrown the bag containing the mobile phone in a bin at Soi Phra Yai.
“We went to the bin but did not find the bag or phone,” said Maj Eakkachai.
Chalong Police charged Jirukan with theft.
Ms Tangqin and her friend(s) said thank you to police even though she didn’t get some of her properties back.