Songkhla —
A transgender person was arrested in Songkhla on Thursday after robbing a gold shop in the Sadao district at a department store.
The robbery took place on January 4th, 2024, at the Yaowarat Krungthep gold shop in the Lotus department store. The suspect, who was later identified as a transgender woman named Preecha Samankhoon, 20, brazenly marched into the store, threatened the employees with a knife, and made off with eight gold necklaces.
The robbery in total took under one minute. Masked Preecha then rode away from the department store on a Honda GPX Drone motorbike with a red license plate. The combined value of the stolen gold necklaces was over 800,000 baht.
According to Pol Lt Col Pichai Khunthongkaew, the investigation chief at the Sadao Police Station, the suspect committed the crime alone. Three shop employees, all women, were not hurt by the suspect but were visibly shaken by the incident.
Police immediately began searching for the suspect after interviewing the employees. Around half an hour past midnight on January 5th, they arrested Preecha at an unidentified apartment on Niphat Uthit 2 Road in Hat Yai. Seized from her were the eight stolen gold necklaces and a knife she used in the incident. The items were hidden under a pillow.
