Hat Yai police nab Indonesian suspect over theft of 1 million baht

Hat Yai police arrested an Indonesian national at a hotel in Nakhon Si Thammarat on charges of stealing 1 million baht from a parked pickup truck on Monday.

After the owner of the pickup truck and the stolen money filed a complaint with Hat Yai police, officers checked security camera footage, which led them to arrest Erwin Apri Anto, 45, at a hotel in Nakhon Si Thammarat.

The suspect admitted that he had trailed the pickup and stolen the money when the owner parked it outside a restaurant and fled to Nakhon Si Thammarat. He said he has spent most of the cash and only has some 400,000 baht left.

On Monday evening, the pickup truck owner told police that he had withdrawn the cash from a bank in Hat Yai and put the money in an envelope on the backseat of his pickup truck. He then drove around Hat Yai downtown to complete his errands.

He said he had also parked it briefly in front of a restaurant on Sakhon Mongkhol Road and had gone out to complete an errand. After returning, he drove up a bridge and realised that the door on the left-hand side was not firmly closed. When he stopped to secure the door, he found that the money envelope was missing.

Police later learned from a Myanmar worker at the restaurant that a Honda sedan stopped about 20 metres in front of the pickup truck briefly before speeding off.

Police then checked the CCTV feeds across Hat Yai and found the Honda car in question. It then sought help from Nakhon Si Thammarat police to locate and arrest the suspect on Wednesday.

Anto told police that he had gone into the bank to exchange his money for Thai baht when he saw a woman withdraw 1 million baht. So he followed her out and saw her hand the envelope to the pickup driver.

Anto said he followed the pickup truck until it parked in front of the restaurant. Then he pried open the left rear door, picked up the envelope and fled to Nakhon Si Thammarat.