Pattaya police arrested a 19-year-old Bangkok man who admitted stealing his grandfather’s safe, then leaving it on the back of a motorbike while he got drunk and passed out on the beach.
An inebriated Thanapon U-Charoen, 19, was taken into custody Nov. 14 when he returned to the Honda MSX he parked outside Hooters on Soi 13/1. On the back of the bike, tied tightly under a tarp, was the 33-by-40-centimeter home safe he stole from his 80-year-old grandfather’s house in the Lad Prao area of Bangkok.
Once he sobered up, Thanapon admitted he took the safe because he needed cash to pay off football bets, police said. Besides, Thanapon added, he’d ripped of his family many times before.
Thanapon said he escaped to Pattaya then decided to drink beer on the beach. But he got drunk and fell asleep, then woke up later to find a locksmith to break into the safe.
Police had grandfather Supakit Suranaowarat come to Pattaya to identify his belongings, but the 80-year-old couldn’t remember the passcode. So police had a locksmith open it. Inside was a 10-baht-weight gold ornament worth more than 200,000 baht, gold bracelet, 65,000 baht cash and two bankbooks.
Police returned the valuables to the grandfather and turned over the grandson to Bangkok police for prosecution.
