Officers were alerted by one of the shop’s Bangkok-based owners, Nuchchapa Jessadarak, 49, who told them there were signs of a break-in at the shop in Sainamyen Rd. They arrived to find four of the staff waiting for them in the building.
In the back, they could see that the would-be safe crackers had broken through the roof into the strong room where three safes stood inside a cages of metal bars.
The lock of the cage had been cut and the burglars had tried to cut open one of the safes with an oxy-acetylene cutter.
They failed, and left the shop, leaving behind the remains of the ceiling, the cutter, two gas tanks a large adjustable wrench, a pry bar and a cleaver.
The burglars also cut power to the shop in order to disable the security cameras before they started work.
Police gathered evidence such as fingerprints and said they will also check air conditioning engineers and telephone land-line service providers to see whether any of their staff might have been involved.