A young Indian man has been arrested for stealing cash belonging to an Egyptian passenger at Suvarnabhumi airport, police said.
Tourist police and the airport’s special operations officials launched an investigation after the Egyptian filed a complaint with Suvarnabhumi airport police on Saturday morning, saying that an amount of cash in his luggage had been stolen while he was asleep in the departure lounge on the 4th floor near Gate No 9.
The footage of a security camera showed that at 2.15am on Nov 4 the Indian man, who was identified later as Mahesh Vaijinath Mote, 23, walked into the lounge and sat on a chair behind the Egyptian, who parked a trolley with his luggage near a power plug for passengers to recharge their mobile phone batteries.
The Indian man pretended to get his phone recharged. When the Egyptian fell asleep, the Indian searched his luggage and took an amount of cash from a small bag. He then replaced the bag on the trolley before walking away through Gate No 8. He hailed a taxi to take him to a hotel in Silom area.
Information from the taxi driver led the police to his arrest on Saturday.
The police found 1,600 dollars in USD notes, 1,560 Dirhams in UAE banknotes, and 12,500 baht in Thai banknotes in his possession.
The Indian man first denied he had stolen the money from the Egyptian, but confessed to the theft charges when shown the security camera footage.
He said he had travelled to Thailand on seven occasions. Most recently, he stayed until September when his tourist visa expired and he ran out of money for daily expenses and the hotel bills. He decided to go to Suvarnabhumi airport to steal money, he said, and the Egyptian was the victim.
Source:Bangkok
