Banglamung police have arrested five family members accused of robbing conveniences stores around the Eastern Seaboard and Bangkok.
Sriracha residents Somjai Onsamran, 47; Worawat Kuttajomsri, 18; and Sayan Thaengthong, 32; Roi-et native Nittaya Wongsomsri, 18; and Chusak Phermsalika, 29, of Chaiyanat were apprehended in three separate arrests Feb. 5. Police recovered a meter-long knife, 22-caliber handgun, two purses and a Honda City compact car.
Police said Sayan confessed that all five are family members who have cooperatively shoplifted from convenience stores in Bangkok, Rayong, Sriracha, Banglamung and Pattaya for years. Their arrests came after a Jan. 28 robbery and knife attack at a Tesco-Lotus store on Soi Khao Talo.
Police bring 3 of the suspects, one with a knife and two in handcuffs, to reenact the crime at the scene.
Sayan reportedly told police his group had successfully hit the Express store on Jan. 27 and returned the next day to try again. Somjai and Nittaya entered the store with handbags to fill while Worawat distracted clerks by pretending to buy beer. One clerk, however, remembered Somjai from the day before and led workers to try to capture the alleged shoplifters.
Worawat threw a beer bottle at the head of one worker, while Chusak pulled a knife and injured another, Sayan told police. Sayan then admitted he pulled a gun to threaten workers while they all escaped into the waiting Honda.
Sayan, however, was known to police, as he had dropped his wallet during an earlier robbery in Maptaput, Rayong. He, Somjai and Worawut were arrested at the Phakjaip bungalows in Chonburi. Police then picked up Nittaya at her house in Bangpra and Chusak in Pathumthani.
