A British-Thai couple lost about 160,000 baht in a daring home-invasion robbery at their East Pattaya condominium.
Briton Keith Taylor, 46, and his wife Makawan Taylor, 37, told police that a Thai man in his mid-20s pushed his way into their seventh-floor unit at the Pattaya Pad condominium on Sukhumvit Soi 42 the afternoon of Dec. 24.
The couple, which spends most of the year in the United Kingdom, had just returned for Thailand and noticed the same man talking on the telephone in front of their flat. Shortly later, after putting down their luggage, they heard a knock at the front door, only to find the same man there.
Security cameras caught the thief as he was rushing out of the building with the stolen property.
Makawan said he told them the building manager wanted to speak to them. Taylor left the unit to find the manager and, after he was gone, the suspect rushed past Makawan and grabbed a handbag off the table containing 2,000 British pounds, credit cards, passports and other documents. He then fled downstairs and fled on a motorbike.
Police have security-camera footage of the suspect arriving on the motorbike and then casing each floor, looking for opportunities for theft where there was little, if any, traffic in the halls.
