Rayong thief steals car with toddler on board
A thief drove off in a sedan containing a three-year-old boy in Rayong’s Muang district on Saturday morning, leading to a dramatic search involving cooperation between Facebook users.
The mother, Saenkaew Saensenya, 42, alerted the Muang Rayong police station at 7.30am that her Honda City car had been stolen with her son on board.
She said she left her son in a baby seat in the back of the car and left the engine running while she visited a 7-Eleven in front of Ploen Chai 4 housing estate on Sukhumvit road in Tambon None Phra.
The mother said she saw her car drive off, so she rushed out of the shop to shout for help – but it was too late. As well as notifying police, she posted a notice on her Facebook wall seeking help in locating the car and her son.
Her post was widely shared by Rayong residents while police checked security camera footage that confirmed that a young man had entered the car and driven off.
A few hours later, a woman, Praree Sukatta, 32, called police to say that she had seen a boy who could be the lost child described in the Facebook post.
Praree, a Yakult delivery woman, told police that she saw the boy walking behind a man from King Taksin shrine and that the man had left the boy in front of a law firm. The woman then alerted lawyers inside the building, who called police.
The boy was taken to see his mother at the police station and she broke down with tears of joy.
Police later found the stolen car at a car park. They suspect that the thief was frightened to see a child on board, so he drove to the car park and left both the vehicle and the boy there and fled.