Patrol officers first noticed Danai Poonsawad, 33, sitting on a motorbike outside the CP Gold Master gold shop next to Tesco-Lotus, the target in March of a deadly robbery in which a bystander was shot dead.
When police approached Danai and told him they wanted to search him, he bolted on foot through the Tesco car park, across the heavy traffic of the bypass road and into Billion Plaza, home of Class Act Media, owners of The Phuket News.
Hot on his heels was taxi driver Athit Leebutr who spotted Danai in flight and gave chase.
Athit told The Phuket News, “I saw him looking suspicious and then running away from the police so I helped the police catch him. He ran away from the front of the gold shop and ran across the road in front of Tesco and down the side of the building. I was the one who caught him.”
After Danai pounded down to the end of the alley, Athit cornered him until the constabulary caught up, put him on the ground and cuffed him.
Pol Sen Sgt Maj Witoon Meerit from Phuket City Police said that when police searched Danai, he had in his possession a 12-bore Thai Pradit [homemade] hand gun, and some marijuana, so he was taken to the Phuket City Police Station.
“He told us at first that he intended to take his friend’s mobile phone to a pawn shop but when we checked, it turned out the phone was stolen from someone in Chanthaburi Province. We have already been in touch with the owner.
“We tested Danai’s urine and chemicals turned purple [an indication of narcotics in the urine]. So we checked his profile and it turned out he had twice been arrested in the past for drug possession.”
When Danai was asked why he was carrying the gun and ammunition for it, he said, “My boss told me to carry a gun because I worked for a speedboat company and it is dangerous at night.
“But I didn’t intend to rob the gold shop. I just wanted to take my friend’s phone to the pawn shop.
Police are also making inquiries about the motorbike he was sitting on when they first approached him. “I also borrowed it from my friend, you can check with him,” Danai told them. He gave them a phone number to call but they could not get through.
Given Danai’s fabricated story about the phone, police are currently disinclined to believe his motorbike story, too, and are checking up on that.
They will also be making further inquiries following the discover on the stolen phone of pictures that appear to show Danai and friends enjoying drugs together.