CRIME TRACK
Use of modern methods has solved several cases
Wassayos Ngamkham
A sign warning a wanted burglar to keep out is posted at the entrance of the Manirin Park housing estate in Nonthaburi's Muang district. All vehicles entering and leaving the village are searched after an increase in burglaries in the neighbourhood. |
Most burglaries go unsolved, not because police give them less priority than other crimes, but it is indeed the hardest crime to crack.
That is about to change, thanks to the hard work of Songrak Khunsri of the Crime Suppression Division.
"Motivation is the key to solving murder cases, but investigators usually have few if any clues to work with when a house has been burgled," he said.
Although individual burglaries usually involve only items of relatively small value, to the homeowner it can be a traumatic event.
And when the thieves' hauls are tallied up, the total comes to nearly one million baht each day. Convinced there must be a more successful method, Pol Maj Songrak began his research.
It took him two months to sift through textbooks on new methods of police investigation before settling on a methodology that breaks new ground for Thai investigators.
And with it came success with the arrest of serial burglar Paisan Saikaew, 40, at his home in Pathum Thani's Thanyaburi district on June 24.
Throughout his five-year career as a burglar, Paisan admitted breaking in to 200 homes in housing estates throughout the province.
Four warrants were issued for his arrest, including one for attempted murder issued by the Thanyaburi Court.
He was wanted by the Min Buri Court for jumping bail and robbery. The Southern Bangkok Criminal Court's warrant charged him with the attempted murder of government officials and using a gun.
Paisan had been in and out of prison six times between 1989 and 2002 before he jumped bail.
This modern method also helped put Pirapong sae Siew, a 25-year-old thief from Chon Buri, behind bars.
Pirapong robbed about 50 houses in Nonthaburi over a six-month period before he was apprehended on July 10 with 35 stolen items in his possession.
The Criminal Court issued three warrants for his arrest and the Nonthaburi Court two warrants, all for burglary.
"Police have always treated burglary as a routine job because we receive several complaints a day," Pol Maj Songrak said. "In most cases the thieves get away because we have had no idea where to start an investigation."
Investigators previously applied what was known as the "In-Outside" approach, checking the crime scene in order to find the possible suspects, he said. But with the usual stereotype suspect being narrowed to drug addicts, members of the household and workers on nearby construction sites, these old-school tactics no longer worked.
Instead, Pol Maj Songrak studied a new ground-breaking theory developed by European and American police, called "Outside-In", which involves criminal and geographic profiling.
"We bring burglary cases in different areas together, compare them and determine the similarities and differences. The assumption is that burglary is a serial crime, as in the case of Paisan," he said.
In the Paisan case, Pol Maj Songrak started his investigation in an area in Pathum Thani which contains 18 housing estates. About 200 houses had reported burglaries, but all the houses in one estate had been spared.
Geographic profiling suggests the thief would not strike near his hideout.
With 10 houses robbed in one day, he assumed the thief had studied his targets before he struck.
The theory says the thief tends to lower his guard on the day he checks out his next target because in his mind he had done no harm and is not under suspicion. Quite often he does not bother to hide his name or car registration number.
"My team requested the records of visitors and security camera footage from the five housing estates where the burglar had been active. We were looking for a person or a car that had been at all the villages. It is time consuming and detailed work," he said.
The investigators found a car that had entered all five housing estates over the period of the thefts. The car belonged to a man living in a housing estate nearby which had not reported any burglaries.
Further research found a member of his household had a lengthy criminal record, which included burglary.
To nail the suspect, Pol Maj Songrak sent the fingerprints collected from the burgled homes to a central laboratory for comparison. The report came back confirming the fingerprints were from the same person - and were a match with Paisan's.
"This case was not so difficult. We only need to use our brains, time and patience and work from the big picture. The more frequently a burglar strikes, the more careless he becomes," he said.
He advised home owners to take more care in safeguarding their valuables. Thieves target items that are portable and easy to grab, such as gold jewellery and ornaments, watches, notebook computers and imported liquor. If time allows, a thief will also take larger, more costly items, particularly flat screen TVs.
Successful burglars often no longer hide the stolen items in a car's boot, which is often opened by the security guard, he said.
Paisan was more brazen and put the stolen items right on the passenger seat where the guard can see them. He was always well-dressed and drove a fancy car, so he was often mistaken for a home owner.
Another useful deterrent is to install security cameras and a fence that allows a thief to be seen from the outside.
"Burglary is a serious crime. It's an offence which inflicts great pain on the victims and police need pay attention to it," Pol Maj Songrak said.
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