Songkhla —
A transgender person was arrested in Songkhla on Thursday after robbing a gold shop in the Sadao district at a department store.
The robbery took place on January 4th, 2024, at the Yaowarat Krungthep gold shop in the Lotus department store. The suspect, who was later identified as a transgender woman named Preecha Samankhoon, 20, brazenly marched into the store, threatened the employees with a knife, and made off with eight gold necklaces.
The robbery in total took under one minute. Masked Preecha then rode away from the department store on a Honda GPX Drone motorbike with a red license plate. The combined value of the stolen gold necklaces was over 800,000 baht.
According to Pol Lt Col Pichai Khunthongkaew, the investigation chief at the Sadao Police Station, the suspect committed the crime alone. Three shop employees, all women, were not hurt by the suspect but were visibly shaken by the incident.
Police immediately began searching for the suspect after interviewing the employees. Around half an hour past midnight on January 5th, they arrested Preecha at an unidentified apartment on Niphat Uthit 2 Road in Hat Yai. Seized from her were the eight stolen gold necklaces and a knife she used in the incident. The items were hidden under a pillow.
During interrogation, Preecha admitted that the motive behind the crime was her need for money to buy a gun. Her intention was to use the firearm to seek revenge against her former employee and ex-boyfriend, who had allegedly cheated her out of a substantial sum of money.
Preecha also disclosed that she had rented a motorcycle in the Sadao area to use as a getaway vehicle. Following the incident, she abandoned the motorcycle, knowing it had a GPS tracker, before hiring a pickup truck to take her to the apartment. Regardless, police still managed to quickly track her down.
The suspect was taken to the Sadao Police Station to face legal proceedings.
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