expat heists at expat villas
Upmarket Expat Five Pull Off Phuket Drive-in Heists
By Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison
Friday, November 6, 2009
POLICE are questioning five expat men who pulled off an audatious series of thefts on Phuket before fleeing to Bangkok this week.
Phuketwan has learned that arrest warrants were issued from Phuket for the five today before the men were apprehended in Suirat Thani. The scheme worked like this:
The men hired five luxury cars on Phuket, then visited the underground carpark at the Central Festival shopping mall, where they stole the number plates from five other cars.
Having fitted the stolen plates, the men drove the cars to upmarket luxury villa estates, where the cars, all equipped with dark glass, were usually admitted without thorough security checks being made at the gates.
Often, it was simple for the men to talk their way through, the security guards presuming that the men in the cars were friends of owners.
At the villas, the men checked first to make sure nobody was at home, then pillaged as much as they could in luxury goods, opening safes where possible.
Victims of the robberies sounded the alert at Phuket police stations this week.
The theft of the number plates enabled police to trace the vehicles to a hotel in Surat Thani, where the five men stayed briefly before heading for Bangkok.
With one mobile phone number known, police were able to track the movements of the gang. The five men were arrested when they returned from Bangkok to Surat Thani early today.
Police are still amassing details of the hauls. It's suspected that, given the scale of the operation, fake passports are involved.
The nationalities and identities of the five men are expected to become known as police inquiries continue. Surat Thani police are leading the investigation.
Upmarket Expat Five Pull Off Phuket Drive-in Heists - Phuket Wan
