A gang of grifters impersonating police and record-company executives attempted to extort 30,000 baht from a pizza restaurant owner for playing pirated music.

A German man died after apparently jumping from the 56th floor of the Pattaya Park Hotel.

Stefan Heiner Völkl, 39, suffered massive injuries in the Nov. 8 apparent suicide. Police found on him a note to contact family in Germany if he should die. They also found a hotel room number handwritten on a note.

Police searched the hotel room, finding Völkl’s belongings. Staff there said he had checked in Nov. 6 and had planned to leave three days later.

The body was sent to the Forensics Institute and the German embassy was contacted.

A tour bus left in neutral demolished a city light pole after the bus driver parked to go shopping.

Police were called to North Road in front of the Peace Resort in Naklua around 3 a.m. Nov. 13 where the Plachiva Transport Co. vehicle had knocked over one of Pattaya’s new dolphin-adorned streetlamps. No one was injured.

Animal-rescue officers recovered a calf that had fallen into a drainage pipe on Thepprasit Soi 5.

Authorities were called to the street undergoing heavy construction around 9 a.m. Nov. 4. Pipe was being laid in a trench three meters deep and two meters wide.

Married employees of a German hotel owner have been arrested for allegedly stealing his BMW.

Rungroj Osha, 27, and his wife Sunisa Kerdnaikaew, 20, were apprehended Nov. 7 for allegedly taking the black 730li from Michael Procher, the owner of the Lake Mabprachan Resort.

An Iranian boxer was arrested after allegedly injuring three people by throwing a bottle at their car.

Khomahsoudi Ayoub, 30, was apprehended Nov. 5 following the incident on Soi Mabyailia 37, Nongprue. Noppawan Sohheng, 25, Klommas Yuttanawa, 22, and her 8-month-old baby were injured when the suspect allegedly threw a full bottle of vinegar through their car window.

Department of Special Investigations and Energy Ministry officials raided a Naklua gas station, arresting its owner for allegedly selling cooking gas to drivers of liquid natural gas vehicles.

More than 1,000 people attended a one-day “school” on political action organized by the UDD “red shirt” group.

Chanyuth Hengtrakul, local head of the United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship, and Thida Thawornset, president of Thai Red in the Land, hosted the Nov. 4 “Thai Red in the Land School for Beginners” at Health Park in Naklua.

Chonburi police and social-welfare officials briefed “Save the Children Sweden” members on local efforts to protect women and children from physical and mental abuse.

Four members of a Chantaburi-based loan-sharking ring were arrested after allegedly intimidating a businesswoman forced to pay 10,000 baht interest a day.