Lam Luk Ka: Stressful interrogation all night, the suspect who stole 113 baht worth of gold confessed to pawning some of the gold and buying a crucible to make it harder for the police to track him down.
According to Thai News Agency, the Region 1 Provincial Police Investigation Division took Mr. Thapanas, 38, or Bell, the culprit who stole 113 baht worth of gold worth 5.4 million baht from a famous shopping mall in Lam Luk Ka, out of the detention room at Lam Luk Ka Police Station and took him to the second floor for questioning. Last night, the investigator questioned Bell all night until 3:00 a.m. and will question him again this morning. Pol. Lt. Gen. Surapol Prembut, Commander of Provincial Police Region 1, and Pol. Col. Thiradech Chanlat, Superintendent of Lam Luk Ka Police Station, were the interrogators.
While taking Bell to the second floor, Bell admitted to the media that he was the perpetrator. He had already pawned some of the gold and used the money to buy gold smelting equipment to melt the remaining gold into gold bars to deceive the police officers into not being able to check the source of the gold. He admitted that he acted alone. When asked if he knew that he could not escape arrest during each gold robbery, Bell nodded but did not answer the question.
At 10:00 a.m., Pol. Lt. Gen. Akkaradech Pimolsri, Assistant Commissioner-General of the Royal Thai Police, will travel to interrogate the suspect himself before making a statement to the media. After that, the suspect will be taken to reenact the crime scene at the said shopping mall.