Cat burglar caught

 | Mon 13 Jul 2020 15:23 ICT

A man from Mae Suay was arrested in Chiang Mai on 13th July for burglary.

Starting from early June, Mae Ping police had been receiving reports from many moo ban (housing estates) reporting theft from multiple homes.

Recently on the 10th July another report came in of a burglary in Palm Springs Country Home, Thasala. This time the culprit was caught on CCTV footage which soon lead them to the man from Mae Suay, who had previous convictions of a similar nature.

Police arrested him in Sansai and he has since confessed to being the burglar in question. He also led police to some of the items stolen which he had hidden in an overgrown plot of land near his residence.

The man admitted to police that he was addicted to gambling and had lost his job. His debts were accumulating, he said, while admitting to stealing from six houses in Saraphee, one in Sankampaeng and one in Mae Ping area. He said that he would simply walk around and look for an unoccupied and unlocked house, by day and night. Most of the goods stolen were sold online, with money being used to pay back gambling debt.

So far police have found that he has been arrested three times prior to this occasion and went to trial for one case involving narcotics, two involving theft. He was released from jail two years ago.