Phasakorn Channgam
That sinking feeling continues to plague Pattaya’s roads, this time with a section of Second Road near Soi 6 partially falling in on itself.

Officials move in to repair another sink hole on Pattaya roads, this one near the Bangkok Bank on 2nd Road.

The depression, which consumed most of one lane near Bangkok Bank Feb. 14, is believed to have occurred when a leaking water pipe below the roadway washed away sand supporting the pavement, causing it to bow.
The 1 m. deep depression was repaired the next morning. And the city is now checking pipes in the area to prevent further occurrences like this one and two others that have hit Sukhumvit Road in recent weeks.

U.S., Thai marines join forces to plant coral, release turtles

Thai and U.S. Marines officers work together
to rebuild the coral reef near Koh Kaitia.

Patcharapol Panrak
American marines in the area for the annual Cobra Gold exercise joined up with their Thai counterparts to release baby turtles into the sea and plant coral.
Vice Adm. Terry G. Robling led marines from five ships participating in multinational exercise to Toey-Ngam Beach in Sattahip Feb. 9. There they were met by Vice Adm. Suwit Thararoop, commander in chief of the Royal Thai Marine Corps. Officers from both sides exchanged questions and ideas and touched up topics of joint cooperation, such as anti-terrorism measures.
Suwit noted that Thai and U.S. marines have had a long relationship with most techniques used by Thai forces coming from their U.S. brethren. While in the past joint exercises focused on armament training, this year such things as battling terrorism and aiding those struck by natural disasters have become a priority.
In the spirit of good cooperation, forces from both countries released young turtles back into the wild and planted Acropora Robusta coral to rebuild the reef off Koh Kaitia.

Smashed American smashes girlfriend, Dane, beer bar

Boonlua Chatree
A drunken American man nursed his hangover in a jail cell after allegedly hitting his girlfriend, a Danish man and smashing up a Jomtien Beach beer bar.

Rescue workers clean up John W. Lechleitner after his beer bar scuffle.

John W. Lechleitner, 60, was hauled away from the Do-Do Beer Bar Feb. 5 by officers after breaking a glass and smashing 44-year-old Palle Sondergard with a chair.
Suwimon Termsuk, 26, told police she and the elderly ex-soldier lived together for about two years, but she had not seen him in a while and came to the bar to find him. When she did, he supposedly got angry and slapped her. Sondergard stepped in to help the woman and caught a chair as thanks.
Bar owner Pranee Chumpian said that Lechleitner had damaged several items at her establishment and, once he was sober, she would pursue him for compensation.

British man drugged, robbed of 360,000 baht

Boonlua Chatree
A British man who picked up a woman on a late night walk back to his hotel was apparently drugged and robbed of more than 360,000 baht in jewelry and electronics.
Paul Edward Metcalfe, 61, had been drinking at a Soi 12 beer bar when, after deciding to return back to Siam Greyhound guesthouse, he said he was approached by a woman who offered to join him for 1,000 baht.
Metcalfe told police the next day he believes he was drugged by the woman as he passed out from approximately 2 a.m. until 8 a.m. Feb. 7. When he awoke he found that his Rolex watch worth approximately 300,000 baht, two gold rings valued at 40,000 baht, an Apple iPod worth 10,000 baht, mobile phone worth 10,000 baht, and 6,000 baht cash was gone.

Police smash multinational ATM fraud ring

Police have arrested Martin Arami, Charoenchai Kitpimsakul,
and Aiyadet Oanurak for ATM fraud.

Boonlua Chatree
Police have arrested a gang of Iranian, Taiwanese and Thai men who allegedly used an overseas call center to dupe Thais into using ATMs to transfer cash to more than 1,000 of their bank accounts.
Alleged Iranian gang leader Martin Arami, 37, and two Thais, Charoenchai Kitpimsakul, 31, and Aiyadet Oanurak, 54, were the latest arrests by Central Investigation Bureau and Tourist Police officers in Bangkok Feb. 8. Their apprehensions followed a Feb. 4 arrest of Xia Yong Thong at a Siam Paragon department store ATM in Bangkok. Two female Thai suspects, Maleechan Lakhon and Pranom Saebo, are still at large.
CIB investigators claim Arami was the local point man for the multinational crime group that used Internet call technology to contact mobile phone users in Thailand under the guise of Revenue Department agents or bank officials. The suspects then told the Thais they had outstanding tax or credit card debts that required immediate via ATM. Taking advantage of poor language skills, the callers then walked their victims through English-only instructions on how to make the payments.
The money, however, went into accounts the criminals allegedly used more than 1,000 Thais to set up. Locals would receive up to 2,000 baht each to establish an account and then turn over the bank card to the scammers. The fraudsters would then use the cards to withdraw their ill-gotten gains.
Xia was arrested while making large withdrawals from several accounts. Arami was arrested in possession of 19 ATM cards, 270,000 baht, several bank withdrawal slips and three mobile phones. Investigators claimed in the past year he had funneled more than 47 million baht through his bank account.
Police warned anyone who received payment for opening bank accounts of behalf of others to turn themselves into authorities immediately. They also warned the public not to disclose personal details over the phone to strangers and to report cases of Chinese or Taiwanese people making suspiciously large withdrawals from ATMs.

Tourist given sleeping pills & robbed

Boonlua Chatree
An Asian tourist police assume was drugged elsewhere, was robbed by three men posing as police officers after passing out on Pattaya Beach.

Police and emergency workers tend to the unconscious tourist.

The male victim, believed to be in his mid 30s, was taken to Pattaya Memorial Hospital Feb. 5 by Sawang Boriboon Thamasathan Foundation medics. Police also called to the scene found one witness, 16-year-old Natthawut Chamchan.
Natthawut said he initially found the unconscious tourist lying on the beach near the old pier in South Pattaya. He was quickly approached by three men in their early 20s with walkie-talkies and handcuffs who claimed to be police officers. They assisted the man from the beach before taking his identification, mobile phone and cash out of his pockets, then fleeing.
Officers assume the victim was probably drugged elsewhere and then passed out on the beach. They planned to interview the man at the hospital to gain what information they can to pursue his attackers.

Thai woman arrested for pimping underage girls to foreigners

Boonlua Chatree
Police have arrested a Thai woman who allegedly has been pimping underage girls in Pattaya and Bangkok.

Amornrat Katuei has been arrested for pimping underage girls in Pattaya and Bangkok.

Department of Human Tracking investigators in Bangkok were alerted Feb. 7 that 32-year-old Amornrat Katuei, who had escaped arrest there last month, was planning to take two girls, ages 12 and 14, to a customer in Naklua.
Officers followed the Khon Kaen native to the SN Apartment on Third Road where she escorted the girls to a fifth-floor apartment. After presenting the girls to the potential customer, police swooped in and arrested her, along with 43-year-old Danish man Michael Borch-Jenson, who officers found in his underwear.
Amornrat was charged with human trafficking of minors with or without their consent. Borch-Jenson admitted he’d contacted Amornrat for girls, but had not touched them.

Tour bus loses control, smashes into 3 cars and a motorcycle

Staff Reporters
A tour bus carrying Asian tourists from the Pattaya Crocodile farm to the Na Jomtien elephant village sped through an intersection at high speed, crashing into 3 cars and a motorcycle.
The accident occurred at the Mitr Kamol intersection with Soi Siam Country Club on Thursday, February 11. Sawang Boriboon rescuers attended the scene.
No one on the bus appeared to be seriously injured, but drivers of two of the vehicles were injured and taken to Bangkok Hospital Pattaya where they were treated and released.
A black Honda CRV, a gold Toyota pickup truck, and a white Honda Jazz were all damaged in the accident, as was the motorcycle of unknown make.
The tour bus, a six-wheeler with Bangkok tags belonging to Por Patchara Tour Co., Ltd., received damage to its left side. The driver of the bus, Jamnong Polsim, 36, tried to flee the scene, but was brought back.
Jamnong claimed that his brakes failed at the intersection, whereupon he crashed into the Honda CRV causing the pileup.
Witnesses, however, said that Jamnong was driving much too fast and that he swerved wildly before crashing into the other vehicles at the intersection.

Train passenger injured in latest prank at Sriracha bridge

Boonlua Chatree
A 26-year-old train passenger was injured when she was struck by a rock thrown from a bridge over the railway near Hua Krok Station in Sriracha.

Siripan Kamsuk sustained a cut to the head when irresponsible teens threw a rock at a train from a notorious bridge in Sriracha.

Siripan Kamsuk sustained a cut to the head in the Feb. 9 incident, the latest of numerous pranks directed at trains in Sriracha. She was treated at the scene by Sawang Pratheep medics and taken to Somdej Phraborommarachathewee Hospital.
Siripan told police she had boarded the train in Plutaluang and was en route to Bangkok when, just before pulling into the Hua Krok station, a rock crashed through the window and hit her. Police assume the fist-size block was thrown by teenagers who, in recent months, have urinated onto trains from the same bridge or thrown excrement-filled bags at passenger cars.
Railway officials have asked police to better patrol the Hua Krok bridge area to prevent further incidents.

8,700 U.S. forces lead 6-country Cobra Gold 2010

Adm. Wanlop Gerdpol (front left), deputy commander in chief of Thailand’s National Military Forces, and U.S. Ambassador Eric John (speaking) kick off the Cobra Gold 2010 exercise.

Phasakorn Channgam
More than 14,000 soldiers from six countries engaged in Asia’s largest war games in the Gulf of Thailand for Cobra Gold 2010.
More than 8,700 forces from the United States joined nearly 4,700 personnel from Thailand and hundreds more from Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea for the Feb. 1-11 exercise. Teams from Australia, France, Italy, the UK, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Malaysia, Cambodia, and the Philippines also joined the planning and support of the 29th Cobra Gold while 10 other countries sent observers.
This year’s exercise also marked the first time Singapore, Japan, Indonesia and South Korea participated with active-duty forces.
The multinational exercise saw forces using live ammunition during naval maneuvers and had U.S. and Thai air forces flying joint missions.
U.S. Ambassador Eric John said the annual games are the U.S.’s “largest military cooperative effort in the Pacific” and “signals the United States’ commitment to the security of our friends and allies in the Asia-Pacific Region.”

The U.S. military shows off some their military gadgets.

Fearing coup, Bangsai residents urge military to keep peace

Bangsai residents present flowers to military commanders
asking them to refrain from staging another coup.

Theerarak Suthatiwong
About 300 residents of Chonburi’s Bangsai Sub-district worried about rumors of another military coup presented roses to local armed forces with a plea to only maintain the peace and honor the monarchy.
Bangsai Mayor Kampol Wongsaithong led the Feb. 6 delegation in the march from city hall to the Nawamin Rachinee Military Camp. They were greeted by Col. Mettrai Jetsadachat, deputy commander of the 14th Military Command of Chonburi, and commissioned officers there to receive them.
Kampol explained that residents were concerned about rumors of the military staging the second coup since 2006 to protect the country against expected violence from red-shirted supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose personal fortune of 76 billion baht faces seizure by the government Feb. 26.
He said past divisions in society have only hampered development of the country and urged the military to maintain peace and to show the red shirts that not everyone supports their cause.

Naklua dog ‘sings’ national anthem

Patriotic Nong Bam sings along to the National Anthem.

Boonlua Chatree
She may not know the lyrics, but a dog at the Naklua Market knows to stand and howl each time the Thai national anthem is played.
Vendors at the market noticed that each day at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. - when the anthem is broadcast on TV and radio - “Nong Bam,” a 12-year-old Thai-breed stray, gets on its four paws and tries to sing along. The howling ends with the song and no other song elicits the same reaction.
Locals note that, while a little odd, Bam is otherwise gentle, obedient and non-aggressive.

Army, Navy personnel donate blood amid violent surge in south

Patcharapol Panrak
With a recent uptick in violence in Thailand’s troubled southern provinces, 120 Air and Coastal Defense Command personnel donated blood to help their brethren in the south and make merit in the name of HM the King and the father of the Royal Thai Navy.

Soldiers in Sattahip donate blood to help their brothers in arms in the Deep South.
Capt. Bandit Chanrojwong, commander in chief of the Naval Recruit Training Center, and Capt. Ratchayot Ratchatarungroj, commander in chief of the Army Soldier Training Division, led the group of officers and enlisted personnel to Queen Sirikit Naval Medical Center Feb. 2. They said the good deed was done in the spirit of Prince Chumporn Khetudomsak, who is considered the father of the modern Thai navy.
Capt. Bandit also said that the situation in the Muslim-dominated south has worsened recently with several deaths and injuries to armed forces. This has strained hospital blood supplies. Donating blood, he said, helps the soldiers express their unity and loyalty to the country.