Gold shop robbery near Fountain Circle today

Thai man and Thai lady in white sedan executed an armed robbery using a pistol. Then ditched the white sedan for a black sedan and was last seen headed toward Kohn Kaen. Still at large.

The wife knows the people who were robbed. She just got off the phone with a friend who works for the brother of the gold shop owners and she says the robbers were aprehended by the police somewhere between Udon and Khon Kaen. She doesn't know yet if the stolen gold was recovered.

This morning, the wife talked to her friend at the gold shop. My understanding of the events are as follows:

. There were two men and one woman.
. The woman involved ran a gambling operation in Ubon Ratchatani.
. The the two men had suffered major gambling losses betting on the World Cup. None are from Udon.
. They came to Udon, stayed at a local resort and cased the victims shop for several days.
. During the robbery, they fired a shot inside the shop.
. People in the adjacent gold shop hear the shot and activated an alarm.
. The Udon police located the robbery by GPS coordinates and a policeman near the shop was able to follow the robbers.
. The robbers switched cars and a security camera at that location captured the switch.
. Residents near the car switch noticed the unusual activities and notifed the police.
. The police were able to view the car switch and a helicopter was sent up to find and follow the white car.
. The chase was on and the robbers car finally hit another vehicle and they were apprehended near Khon Kaen.
. The robbers were held in Khon Kaen and would be transferred to Udon Thani.
. Four hundred baht of gold were recovered from the robbers.
. The woman took another 200 baht and got out of the get-away car somewhere in Udon Thani.
. The woman's identity in known and the police are searching for her.

It seems that gambling debts triggered the gold shop robbery.

Shado, that's how I understood it unfolded, also.

I knew yesterday about the cameras catching video of them, but had not wanted to put that on the public forum.

Gambling, alcohol, food and sex -- the Big Four Addictions. One or all will get you every time.

Sad to say I know personally many Thai Women(Farang's wives) that are addicts to Gambling. A few have lost husbands and other love ones because of Gambling.

A good number of the gold shops in town run a blog
(http://www.ranthong.com/smf/index.php?a ... ic=27909.0), with minute by minute reports of the incident. 300 baht worth of gold....that's near 6 million baht. There are a few photos of the car and the two suspects (age 19 and 17) at
http://www.komchadluek.net/media/img/si ... 7c7eg9.jpg
and
http://www.komchadluek.net/media/img/si ... 79b6ej.jpg

I'm sure they'll be innocent until proven guilty, if they live that long.

The gold shop is supposedly across from street from the non-formal education center (and library). Seems to me they were robbed 2 or so years ago. Shots were fired at that robbery as well.

They must have thought Udon was easy pickings.Gambling is bad news.

thrilled wrote:They must have thought Udon was easy pickings.Gambling is bad news.

Yep, thrilled I agree with you. Now the have another thought coming and a long time to think it over. By the way do anybody know(have heard) if they caught the woman that was involve?

My initial reaction was the robbery was risky for getaway purposes, in what must be one of the busiest places in town. But I'm not planning one myself!

According to the wife, two women were arrested in Pattaya today in connection with the Udon gold shop robbery. None of the missing gold was recovered. I expect that more details will be forthcoming following interrogation by the police.

Shado wrote:According to the wife, two women were arrested in Pattaya today in connection with the Udon gold shop robbery. None of the missing gold was recovered. I expect that more details will be forthcoming following interrogation by the police.

Yes, saw them on Home Cable last night (6pM) mom came with them to police station to turn themselves sad could have been more than 18 or 19 years old oh well they did the crime now a little time, my guess two to five in prison than out if they are good girls.