14-year-old boy was arrested trying to snatch a Russian tourist's handbag in Pattaya

14-year-old boy was arrested trying to snatch a Russian tourist's handbag in Pattaya later the handbag was stolen by a motorbike man who was arrested for theft and possession of marijuana.

Pattaya, August 3, 2011 [PDN]; Pol.Lt.Col. Panlop Ringrod, Pattaya police was informed of a bag-snatch at Lam Balihai. The suspect was caught by the victims and the onlookers.

At the scene, the police found the victims; Mr Yuri Safonov, age 33, Russian and his girlfriend, Ms. Galina Irgizkina, age 29, and witnesses who caught the suspect “Pol” age 14.

Mr Yuri Safonov reported to the police, that as he and his girlfriend were going back to the hotel, the two suspects rode their motorbike close to them and snatched his girlfriend’s handbag. He ran after them and grabed the suspect’s shirt and one of suspects fell from the motorbike with the handbag. The other suspect escaped to South Pattaya where the volunteer police was waiting to arrest him. The suspect tried to escape again and hit two volunteer police injuring them. Later the suspect was arrested along with the Honda Wave motorbike, registration Ngor-Kor-Kor 351 Chonburi.



The 14- year-old suspects confessed that they were from Rayong and had skipped school and went to visit their friend in Pattaya, borrowed his bike in order to snatch bags from tourists which they did twice before being arrested.

During the investigation, the victims informed the police that their handbag had disappeared. The suspect told the police that the handbag fell during the snatch. Later, they were informed by the onlookers that the handbag was taken by a motorbike man.



The police searched and found the motorbike man, Mr Pradu Konklong, age 37. He denied the accusation at first. The police searched his body and found a pack of marihauna. After being investigated by the police, he confessed that he took the handbag from at the incident and went to hide it at the motorbike taxi stand. The police went to the motorbike taxi stand and found the victim’s handbag containing 1,720 THB, a Sony mobile phone, a Sumsung digital camera, a hotel key card and cosmetics.

Both 14 years old suspects were detained and charged of stealing and Mr Pradu was charged of Marijuana posession and theft.

In addition, during 18:00-24:00 hrs on the same day there were five motorbike to bag-snatch cases in Pattaya. Only one case led to the arrest of the suspects. The police assumes that the suspects were teens from Pattaya and nearby provinces. The police will set up special team to prevent further bag-snatches.

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