The man, Apichart Yensai, was called to Phuket City Police Station on Saturday (Nov 2) for the dressing down, Phuket City Police Chief Col Sompong Thiparpakul explained to The Phuket News’ sister-newspaper Khao Phuket today (Nov 4).
Apichart posted on a local Facebook group last Wednesday (Oct 30) a B3,000 reward for any persons who had information that would led to the recovery of his stolen exhaust.
In the post online, Apichart claimed he was the nephew of a local police superintendent and hashtagged the post “Phuket City Police Station” in Thai.
“Dear poor thief, read this message carefully. You have no idea who you are messing with. I don’t care. Did you check yet that you are messing with a relation of someone? Remember, my name is Apichart Yensai. Search my family name and check it with someone at Phuket City Police Station. Remember I am merciful man. If you don’t return it, you can keep it. But I want your fingers instead. Remember if you don’t give it back, this will not be the end. The reward is B3,000. I want the thief,” the post said.
Below the post, Apichart noted as a comment, “My father is checking CCTV right now. My uncle is angry. Messing with the nephew of a police chief.”
Col Sompong told Khao Phuket this morning, “I gave a warning to Mr Apichart that this is wrong. The post did not mention my name directly, but it is an act that damages the reputation of others. Mr Apichart and his parents now know and have promised that it will not happen again.
“Mr Apichart has no criminal record, but police did mark a record of the incident. I have given him a verbal warning, let society do the rest.
“Please be careful what people post on social media, because it might damage the reputation of others and can end up with people being sued,”Col Sompong warned.
Apichart’s fake claims online came just one day after the official launch of the Thai government’s Anti Fake News Center on Friday, with the Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry aiming to spend B60 million on running the centre in fiscal 2020, working with 200 organisations and the Police Cyber Taskforce (PCT) to combat disinformation spreading online. (See story here.)