Police foil plans of five Vietnamese shoplifters

Three women and two men from Vietnam were arrested in Chiang Mai for shoplifting brand-name clothes worth hundreds of thousands of baht by stuffing them into foil-lined bags to fool the barcode detectors, police announced yesterday.

The five Vietnames aged 24 and 39 were apprehended along with 64 stolen items and two foil-lined bags. The suspects reportedly confessed to the crime spree, which occurred at two malls, provincial police commander Pol Maj-General Montri Sambunnanont said.

They said they intended to sell the stolen items in Vietnam at cheaper prices. They admitted that the foil-lined bags, which were used to avoid detection, were widely available in Vietnam. Police warned shop managers to ask their customers to deposit their bags before entering and to keep an eye out for shoplifters.

Meanwhile, the Economic Crime Suppression Division announced that Malaysian Wong Chen Jear, 29, was arrested along with 11 fake credit cards and five luxury brand bags worth Bt1.1 million at Don Muang Airport on Sunday. He claimed that his creditor in Malaysia made him use the cards in Thailand to buy the items in exchange for a Bt100,000 debt.

Source: The Nation