A gang of cable thieves became more daring, gathering to dive into pipes and cut copper wires in order to sell them. Police arrested one person, with damages worth millions.
The incident occurred in the middle of the night of last August 16th on the outbound Phahonyothin Road, parallel lane, km. 43+600, Tambon Khlong Nueng, Amphoe Khlong Luang, Pathum Thani Province. Khlong Luang Police Station officers went to the area to investigate after receiving a report from volunteer police that they had arrested one person who had stolen cables from pipes. At the scene, they found two damaged cable pipe covers and four vehicles abandoned by the group of perpetrators: two Isuzu pickup trucks, one Nissan pickup truck, and one Hino six-wheel truck. In the back of the pickup truck, there were several cut-up cables, along with a price list for stripping the cables inside the vehicle, large wire cutters, and an iron ladder. In addition, the road surface was covered with dozens of cut-up cables.
Mr. Jiraphan, 36 years old
, the perpetrator, stated that he and 16 others came from Sai Mai area and usually travel around cutting cables, which they were hired to do, but he did not know who the financier was. All of his friends had already fled when the volunteer police came to investigate, but he was unable to escape in time.
Mr. Sirichai Phob Lek, a volunteer police officer, said that before he found the group of perpetrators, he went to look at the scene of a car falling off the side of the road. The group of perpetrators gathered together like workers working. Some of them went down into the pipe to cut cables and two six-wheeled vehicles with the same license plate. He asked to see the vehicle documents, but the group of perpetrators refused. He saw something was wrong, so he called the police to come and help.
The technician of 7, the signal division of NT Company, said that normally the monitor in the capital city will have 24-hour real-time. No matter if the signal cable is broken or damaged, the real-time will be displaye
d immediately. The cut line went to Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya. And the cut line was both fiber optic and copper. The person who cut it only wanted to sell the copper. The 400-pair cable, 200 meters long, the main network is in Thanyaburi and will go to Ayutthaya, Saraburi, Suphan Buri. At the moment, some parts of the signal are unusable. The damage is worth millions of baht. The police took the perpetrator for questioning and are preparing to expand the investigation to arrest the gang members for further legal action.
Source: Thai News Agency