Police are hunting down two men masquerading as police volunteers who illegally detained and robbed a pair of bar workers.
Male go-go bar worker Pornsak Yuyeuan, 26, and his girlfriend, beer bar employee Nittaya Thermyouta, 23, filed a complaint with police May 12.
Pornsak said he was driving his motorbike in South Pattaya around 5 a.m. that day when a youth he described as a smartly dressed teenager with a walkie-talkie tried to pull him over.
Pornsak said he tried to flee, but the youth followed him to his girlfriend’s apartment on Soi Khopai and banged on the door, claiming to be a police volunteer. He took Pongsak into custody, claiming he would be charged with evading arrest.
Police captured a good image of the younger suspect from CCTV. If you know this man, contact police but do not try to apprehend him.
He demanded the couple turn over an iPhone 4 and the cash they had on hand, 400 baht, or he’d shoot Pongsak.
Shortly after, a second, older man arrived at apartment, with Pongsak saying he spotted a Pattaya Police Station logo on his shirt. Nittaya went outside with him and instructed her boyfriend to remain safely inside the apartment.
She claims the older man told her to have sex with him or he’d take her to the police station for a drug test. She refused.
But the man didn’t take her to the station. Instead they arrived at a Third Road pawnshop where he demanded her ID card and used it to sell the iPhone for 3,300 baht.
At that point, she begged to be released. The fraudsters gave her 100 baht for taxi fare home and let her go.
Police said they captured a good image of the younger suspect from CCTV and are investigating the older man’s connection to the Pattaya Police Station.
