Kamthon Kedkaeo, a native of Krabi, quickly removed the device, bundled up in a plastic bag tied to a rail at the China Town Plaza shopping complex, after a Nepalese man had pointed it out to him at about 6:40pm.
After opening the bag and seeing a mobile phone with wires attached to a gel pack, Mr Kamthon placed the bag in a water bucket and and ran it to the middle of the car park, about 50 metres from the shopping area. (See story here)
“Mr Kamthorn is a hero,” said Preechawut “Prab” Keesin of the Pisona Group, which operates many businesses and venues in Patong.
“If Mr Kamthorn did not remove the suspicious item, it could have started a fire like those in other provinces (during the August 12 attacks),” he added.
“I am pleased to praise and honour him for doing a good deed. Our company will give him a B50,000 reward as a present and moral support for a good citizen,” Mr Prab told The Phuket News.
Mr Prab and the Pisona Group are also offering a B100,000 reward to anyone who can provide leads that lead to the conviction of those responsible for recent bomb incidents.
“We will also give B200,000 reward to local police for their hard work, quickly action to keep peace and order in this town,” Mr Prab told The Phuket News.
The rewards will be handed over at 5pm today (Aug 15) at the police box at the beach end of Bangla Rd, where one of the two bombs detonated on Friday.
Although, Phuket Provincial Police Chief Maj Gen Teeraphol Thipjaroen last Thursday publicly announced that the two suspected explosive devices found in Patong last Wednesday were specifically not bombs (see story here), Gen Teeraphol did recognise that the devices were designed to start fires.
The Phuket EOD squad confirmed to The Phuket News the same understanding: that two devices found last Wednesday were likely intended to start fires, and not cause damage by an explosion, like the two devices that detonated at the Bangla Rd police box and Loma Park on Friday.