CRIME

Thief steals from teachers

SUNAND OCHAKHACHORN

Ratchaburi _ A thief broke into a school and stole teachers' belongings from classrooms while kindergarten pupils were outside singing the national anthem yesterday. Police were called to Darunee Ratchaburi school in Muang district at 8.30am after teachers discovered a thief had entered eight classrooms and made off with their belongings.

The teachers had left their bags in the rooms before leading the children downstairs to the front lawn, where they lined up for assembly and the national anthem.

The teachers went back to find most of their belongings, including purses, mobile phones, cash and ATM cards, had gone. The stolen items were worth thousands of baht. Some had written their pin numbers on the ATM cards. Others had withdrawn a lot of cash on payday yesterday and had stored the money in their bags.

No suspicious characters were seen entering the school yesterday, and police suspect the thief could be a parent.

Investigators said a parent may have dropped a child off late on purpose and told the child to join the assembly so he or she could sneak into the rooms, pretending to take the child's bag to class.

Bangkok Post
Friday February 02, 2007