Pol Capt Theppitak Puangmanee of the Wichit Police was informed of the incident just after 3am yesterday (Dec 21).
Officers arrived to find the pickup, a four-door Toyota Vigo, still parked in front of the owner’s rented house near the entrance to Soi Phatthana in Moo 7, Wichit.
The paint on the pickup was blistering where paint stripper had been splashed on the roof, the driver’s door and the rear right door.
The owner of the pickup, ‘Mr Don’ (not his real name), explained that he woke at about 2:10am to get up and ready for work. He showered, drank a cup of coffee and took the trash out to the bin in front of the house.
While outside, he used the garden hose to spray water under the pickup and to water the plants, then went back inside and dressed for work. At that time he did not notice anything different about the pickup.
But when he came back out and opened the door to get in the pickup, he noticed a bad smell.
“I turned on the lights and saw that there were many places affected, so I notified my insurance rep to come and check,” Mr Don said.
His insurance representative arrived at about 3:10am, and reported the incident to police. Mr Don, however, had to leave for work at 4am.
Mr Don explained that he and his neighbour had got along well for a long time, but recently they had been arguing about his neighbour creating noise, mainly involving music and his neighbour doing welding.
Mr Don said he had no issues with any of his other neighbours. “I’m pretty sure it was this one person,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Don will have to do without the use of his pickup while it remains at the police station as evidence. It will also cost him B50,000 to have the paint repaired, he said.
“The initial repair cost is approximately B50,000 because the entire pickup must be done,” he explained.