Hotel standoff with car-thief suspect in Chiang Rai
About 30 police officers have surrounded the Canaan Place hotel in Chiang Rai’s Muang district since Tuesday night in an attempt to arrest 27-year-old Thanakorn Phermpan, who is suspected of having stolen a car.
Thanakorn has locked himself in a hotel room, threatening police with a gun and saying he would not surrender until they brought his wife to talk with him after she fled the area.
On Monday, Thanakorn rented a car from Lucky Co Ltd but failed to return it. Police subsequently discovered that the car had been resold in a Myanmar border town.
On Tuesday morning, Thanakorn contacted the same company to rent another car. Office staff called police who then conducted a sting operation to lend the suspect a white Toyota Vios sedan in order to trace the missing car.
Police also found that Thanakorn had rented a room at the hotel so they surrounded it at 7pm on Tuesday while investigators and the rental car company owner went to the hotel to ask him about the missing car.
Thanakorn resisted and pulled out a gun, firing two warning shots before retreating back into his hotel room. Despite negotiations with the help of Thanakorn’s relatives and former colleagues from a rescue foundation, he refused to surrender but said he would do so if authorities could bring his wife to speak with him first.
