Police held suspect Sethawuth
Phanusithidechanont (seated) long enough to take this photo, but lost him
later from Banglamung Hospital.
Theerarak Suthathiwong
A Bangkok taxi driver arrested for impersonating a Royal
Thai Police lieutenant escaped after Chonburi officers checked him into
Banglamung Hospital.
Sethawuth Phanusithidechanont, 40, was last seen when a
relative dropped him off near the Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort in Wong
Amat Aug. 7.
Region 2 drug investigators had arrested the fugitive
behind Thamsamakkee Temple a day earlier after discovering the national
police badge he was carrying was fake.
Police said Sethawuth confessed to buying the badge from
a real Bangkok lieutenant, then renting a police uniform to wear for the
police identification photo. Sethawuth claimed he did it because he wanted
to help police and to scare off loan sharks pestering his mother.
Region 2 officers, however, suspected Sethawuth of using
the badge to shake down narcotics dealers behind the Pattaya temple for
drugs and money.
Sethawuth, however, claimed to be ill and local police
obligingly dropped him off at Banglamung Hospital where the suspect called a
relative and escaped.
Thirty other regional police officers have now been
assigned to find him.
