The engagement of a Sattahip District official and his official fiancée began with an apology after he got off-duty police buddies to stop and search his wife-to-be’s car for drugs before surprising her with his proposal.
Thanawut Sritalkaew, a Sattahip assistant deputy registrar, issued a public apology Feb. 4 after the video of the stop-and-search cum marriage proposal went viral with disastrous results on the Internet. The wedding is still on for June, but the engagement got off to a rocky start.
Suchada Inthuwong looks on in embarrassment as off duty narcotics police search her car and quiz her about illegal drug use.
Thanawut thought it would be cute if he had off-duty buddies at the Office of the Narcotics Control Board pull over girlfriend Suchada Inthuwong, an employee with the KT Food (Public) Co. at Bang Saray Beach Feb. 3.
Fully uniformed, the officers asked her to step out of the car and she looked on petrified as the cops rummaged through her vehicle and quizzed her about illegal drug use. Finally, they informed her that their “supervisor” had arrived. She turned to find her boyfriend with a bouquet of flowers and wedding proposal.
Suchada finally said yes to Thanawut Sritalkaew’s marriage proposal.
Unsurprisingly to anyone except the hopeful groom, his bride was red in the face, but not blushing. She angrily marched away from him. Thanawut recovered enough to give her the flowers and a hug, eventually winning an “I do” from his new fiancée.
Still, even the next day Thanawut seemed puzzled why he was excoriated when the video he posted to Facebook went viral and attracted hundreds of negative comments. He said he used only off-duty friends, not government weapons and caused no disruption to traffic.
He said Suchada always said she admired his work participating in anti-drug operations, so thought it would be a clever way to surprise her.
