In what sounded like a plot for a farcical comedy movie, a group of Thepprasit Market vendors selling fake brand-name products were ripped off by fake police officers in a fake intellectual property raid.
Vendors of the high-price, low-quality goods cried foul June 26 when 10 men claiming to be Economic Crime Suppression Division officers showed up at the Pattaya market, demanding to inspect their wares.
The “officers” seized about 1 million baht in counterfeit jeans, shirts, shoes and other branded clothing, piled the contraband into a truck and drove away.
But Pol. Lt. Col. Tienchai Lertmaneetaweesap, deputy chief inspector for the ECSD, said no official raid had been planned and the 10 “cops” were as bogus as the apparel they stole.
