KALASIN: An elderly woman is desperately appealing to a thief who broke into her house, saying she won't press charges if he returns her cash and valuables worth 640,000 baht.
Khream Pulaha, 67, has put a sign on the door of her house in Nong Bua village in Huay Mek district to appeal to the burglar. It reads: "Dear thief, please kindly return the money to yai (grandma). I am now broke. If you return the money, I will not pursue charges."
She and her husband Suriyan Pulaha, 70, have filed a complaint with local police. Officers found a knife that may have been used to force open a window and they hope fingerprints from it might lead them to the culprit.
The couple were in despair when the Bangkok Post visited their home.
They said the burglary occurred on April 25. A few days earlier, they had withdrawn 500,000 baht from a bank to buy a land plot for their daughter, who sells som tam in Bangkok and sent money to them for their savings.
The couple also used money from their monthly allowance for the elderly and from the sale of sugarcane to buy gold ornaments worth about 140,000 baht and kept them and the cash inside a wardrobe in their bedroom.
On the day of the theft, Mrs Khream said, she was attending the funeral of a relative in Khon Kaen and her husband was at the local healthcare office.
When she returned home around 8pm, she found a light on inside her bedroom but the room was locked. When she unlocked the door, she was shocked when she saw a window had been forced open and the room ransacked. She immediately checked inside her wardrobe.
She said she almost fainted when she saw that everything was gone. Only a 20-baht banknote believed to belong to the thief was left inside the room.
She and her husband immediately reported the incident to Huai Mek police, said Mrs Khream. She hopes information obtained from neighbours, which the couple shared with investigators, will help.
“Neighbours heard a dog barking near my house around noon on April 25," she said. "They said the suspect is a thin man about 165-170cm tall. He wore clothes like a worker at a sugarcane plantation.
"He was seen riding a motorcycle around my village on that day. He parked his bike about 30 metres from my house later and walked toward the back of the house on that day,’’ she said, recalling what neighbours had told her.
Pol Lt Col Ratthapong Thongchuentrakul, deputy investigation chief at the Huai Mek station, said officers found a large knife behind the house, and it might have been used to force open the window. They also found a 20-baht banknote inside the room. Fingerprints are now being examined, he said.
As there was no closed-circuit television camera in or near the house and there was no clear evidence, the investigation may take some time, he added.
