Local volunteers arrest phone box vandals

Just after midnight on Thursday civil volunteers working in the Na-Jomtien sub-district and led by Khun Somchai, the mayor of Na-Jomtien, came across three Thai males who were vandalizing a public phone box.

After calling police, the mayor and his team attempted to arrest the trio but two of the intended arrestees escaped on a motorbike. Some of the volunteers gave chase. The driver of the motorbike crashed his vehicle a little further down the road and was knocked unconscious while his accomplice was able to escape on foot. The arrested pair said they had taken a crowbar to the phone box in the hope of stealing whatever money was inside the machine so they could purchase yah bah tablets. The Na-Jomtien mayor later complained to our journalists that it took police almost two hours before they arrived at the crime scene. The lieutenant in charge then rang a subordinate and ordered him to come and take over arrest proceedings. The mayor, who is on the local police committee, has said he intends to complain about this poor police performance to the local commander.

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