Patong Police led by Lt Col Somsak Thongkleng arrested 32-year-old Dmitrii Sevastianov at a hotel on Phra Meita Rd on an arrested warrant issued on Saturday for attempted theft at night by destroying other people’s property and damaging other people’s property and assets. Sevastianov was at the hotel with his wife when arrested.
Sevastianov admitted to police that an image caught on the shop’s CCTV was him and said his wife was nothing to do with the incident.
The robbery took place at the Yaowarat Namchok gold shop on Phra Meita Rd in Patong on the morning of Sept 9.
Police were shown CCTV footage from the shop showing a man who was around 1.8 metres tall spending about 30 minutes breaking through a brick wall at the back of the shop at about 5:30am. However, once inside the man failed in his attempt to break open the shop’s safe. (See story here.) http://www.thephuketnews.com/police-hunt-for-cardboard-box-head-failed-patong-gold-shop-robber-59054.php
Lt Col Somsak explained, “The CCTV footage showed the male suspect finally enter the shop after successfully breaking through the wall at 05:56am. He used a cardboard box to conceal his face before smashing one of the shop’s CCTV cameras.
“At 6am he went to the counter searching for valuables. He then disappeared to the back of the shop,” he said.
“Further CCTV footage clearly showed us that the suspect was tall. His physical appearance, including the colour of his eyes, resembled a foreigner. He also had tattoos on both arms.
“We checked CCTV footage from the area close to the shop and found some that showed a man, who looked like the suspect and wearing a raincoat, came out of a construction site next to the gold shop. The man headed toward Nanai Soi 8, and at 06:09am he turned left into a hotel on Pra Meita Rd.
“All the CCTV footage we obtained pointed to one suspect, Mr Dmitrii Sevastianov, so we put him under surveillance. After we was sure we had our man we requested an arrest warrant for him,” he added.
Sevastianov was taken to Patong Police Station to face his charges.