A former Navy SEAL accused of robbing an armored car in 2008 has been arrested for this month’s heist of nearly 9 million baht from a Siam Commercial Bank cash-delivery truck in Pattaya.
Thanom Puangkratok, 40, was captured by Provincial Police Region 2 officers in his Chaiyaphum Province hometown April 22.
The former chief petty officer and navy SEAL frogman was booked on charges of involvement in the April 6 robbery of a Siam Administrative Management Co (SAMCO) armored car outside SCB’s South Pattaya branch. He escaped with 8.8 million baht.
Thanom Puangkratok (seated, center), a former Navy SEAL, has been arrested for the heist of nearly 9 million baht from a Siam Commercial Bank cash-delivery truck in Pattaya.
Police said they believe he snatched the cash from the two SAMCO employees while they were taking money from the bank branch near Walking Street to their van. The thief fired a gun into the air and one driver admitted that he dropped the bag out of fright. He also left the key in the ignition because a spare had broken.
Thanom first came to the attention of Pattaya police after the daylight robbery of a SAMCO truck at a South Pattaya gas station in 2008. A gang of six men staked out the Jet station until the armored car arrived to fill up an automated teller machine there. Using guns and knives, the robbers forced the SAMCO drivers to give up a box containing 5 million baht.
Three of the men were caught quickly and the other in the months to come. Thanom, one of the last to be caught, had been out of jail on bail for another crime.
Charges in the bank heist eventually were dropped due to insufficient evidence.
He and a murder suspect were arrested again in 2009 for the attempted robbery of a Canadian man and his Thai wife in Pattaya. In 2011, he was arrested in connection with a murder in Sattahip’s Plutaluang Sub-district.
Thanom denied the latest charges and is refusing to cooperate with police.
