CityNews – A robber who claimed to be armed with a gun and a bomb stole around 83,000 baht in cash from a Chiang Mai bank on Monday.
Security camera footage of the robbery
The incident occurred around 12 noon at the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives’s Ban Tawai branch, in Hang Dong’s Sobmaekha sub-district.
Employee Nongnapat Nakchalerm, 50, said she was working alone at the front counter when a man wearing a cap and covering his mouth and nose with a white scarf walked in. He was carrying a bag and handed her a note saying there was a bomb and a gun inside.
Nongnapat said the robber, who spoke in the northern dialect, ordered her to give him money and not to press the alarm button. He gave the impression that he was about to pull out an item that looked like a gun from his waistband.
She tried to give the thief 100-baht banknotes but he asked for 1,000-baht notes instead, and she gave him around 83,000 baht.
The thief then left the bank and Nongnapat raised the alarm and called the police. She does not know whether he escaped in a vehicle or on foot, though police believe he fled on a black motorbike.
Police have studied CCTV footage, which shows the robber pausing to take off his socks outside the bank before putting his shoes back on and fleeing.
Officers say he left many clues and they believe he is responsible for previous robberies. They said the case was similar to a robbery at a Bangkok Bank branch in Tha Sala sub-district in November 2013. In that case the thief escaped with 23,510 baht in cash after handing an employee a note demanding money and saying he had a bomb inside his bag.
Police are confident that they will be able to arrest the suspect soon.