Police on Friday arrested two Iranian men for stealing a pair of trainers in the Patong neighbourhood of Phuket.
Officers from Patong Police Station reviewed CCTV footage from a second-hand shoe shop on Phang Mueang Sai Kor Road, in the Patong sub-district of Kathu District, Phuket, after being alerted to the theft on Thursday, July 3.
Two foreign men were seen trying on several pairs of trainers at around 4.30pm, before sneaking out of the shop with a pair of grey Adidas trainers with red stripes. They quickly fled the scene on a Honda Click motorcycle. The price of the shoes was not revealed in the report.
Officers successfully tracked the suspects to a nearby hotel. They were arrested in room number 505 and taken to Patong Police Station for further legal proceedings. The stolen trainers were recovered from their accommodation.
The suspects were identified as Iranian nationals, although their names were not disclosed in the report. According to the Phuket Hotnews Facebook page, the two men were charged under Section 334 of the Criminal Code: committing theft. The penalty for this offence is up to three years’ imprisonment and/or a fine of up to 60,000 baht.
Because the suspects used a motorcycle to facilitate the crime or flee the scene, they face an enhanced penalty, one and a half times the standard punishment under Section 334.
In a related incident in April, an Iranian couple aged 49 and 42 were arrested in Pattaya for carrying out a “show‑me‑your‑money” scam targeting tourists.
After tricking an Israeli tourist into revealing US$700 (around 23,000 baht), they made the cash vanish. Police later found matching banknotes in their possession, and the suspects were charged with theft committed at night.
A similar theft involving Iranian nationals was reported in Bangkok in January, when two suspects allegedly robbed a Vietnamese tourist of 150,000 baht in Chinatown using the same ruse, asking the victim to show their money, then making it disappear.
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