SAMUT PRAKAN: A pregnant woman with a bad gambling habit has been arrested for the theft of eight-baht weight of gold ornaments worth more than 250,000 baht from a shop in Muang District.
Natchanok Charoensuk, 28, who was eight months pregnant, was subdued by passersby when she fell down on the road while running from the shop. She was taken back to the Wan Fung gold shop at the Pak Nam market in tambon Pak Nam, with two stolen necklaces and a bracelet.
Police rushed to the shop after being alerted at around 8.30am, said Pol Capt Khanet Ngamprasert, deputy investigation chief at the Muang district police station.
Police said Ms Natchanok used an app to book a motorcycle ride to the shop. On entering, she asked to see two gold necklaces, weighing 3 baht each, and a two-baht weight gold bracelet. Shop owner Sompong Paetrachai-anan, 73, picked the items from the display counter to show her.
The woman then asked to see another five-baht weight (76 grammes) gold necklace and put her plan in motion. She told the owner that the necklace was tarnished and asked him to clean it.
While the owner was cleaning the necklace, the woman swept up the two necklaces and the bracelet from the counter and ran out of the shop.
Mr Sompong gave chase and shouted for help. After running for a short distance, the pregnant robber fell down on the road before being caught by people who had helped the owner give chase. Security cameras captured the incident.
Mr Sompong told police that the same woman had visited his shop on Wednesday to see a gold necklace weighing two baht. She told him she liked the pattern and would come back. On Friday, she visited his shop again when he was alone and asked to see gold ornaments.
Pol Col Noppadol Changruen, chief of Samut Prakan police, said the suspect admitted she had debts of almost 200,000 baht from online gambling. As she was jobless and pregnant, she had no money to pay them off and this drove her to commit the robbery.
According to the investigation, the woman held a bachelor’s degree and used to work at a convenience store. She later became addicted to gambling before losing her job. She had borrowed 170,000 baht from a friend, ostensibly to buy goods she could sell, but instead she spent the money to finance her gambling habit.
Her family sent her 30,000 baht to partially pay the debt, but she also used that money to bet online, investigators said.
