From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok
October 26
An eight-yr-old British boy was held with a sharpened pencil to his throat held by an apparently drug crazed thief on the outskirts of the Thai capital Bangkok, his father said today.
Screaming and shouting in Thai, the thief, in his twenties, demanded cash after being confronted by the boy’s mother and Liverpudlian dad.
The boy's father Ron Raine
“I told him he would die if he did anything to my son,” said the boy’s father Ron Raine, 57, “but I was three yards away and too far away to make a lunge at him and stop him piercing my son’s throat.
“There was a lot of screaming and shouting.”
Amazingly the stand-off came to an end after Ron Raine, a graphics designer from Walton, Liverpool, produced the sum total of the only cash in his and his wife Fon’s wallet totaling just over eight pounds (sterling).
The thief then left, hurriedly letting go of Martin, a keen Everton supporter, and leaving not only his shoes behind but also a bag containing a knife and tools for burglary.
The incident happened in Krissada Nakorn village in Rangsit, 25 miles north of Bangkok on Tuesday evening. A police spokesman in Rangsit said: “We are confident we will catch the man as we can build up a picture of him quickly because he left his belongings behind.”
Ron Raine, said he believed that the thief had got into his house during the day and was trapped inside when he got back from visiting friends, and his wife and son got back from the shops with Martin.
“I heard my son screaming and rushed inside to see the man holding my son with his arm round Martin’s neck and a pencil to his throat. It was a pencil Martin was using for his homework.
“The thief agreed to go after we produced all the cash we had on us, less than eight quid, and I promised I would not follow. I had to stop my wife chasing after him. I did not know what he might have done and decided to leave it to the police.
“ I was brought up in Walton within spitting distance of Goodison Park and later spent 15 years in Kirkby. This is a quiet suburb and has upset us all. Martin says he wants us to move house.”
Hi Andrew its not just strange things happening in BKK, I live in Pattaya a few weeks ago i was walking to my condo just off beach road and i noticed a motorbike pass me with 2 boys on no helmets , remem bering Lydia sensed the motor bike had stopped i stopped and turned round one of the boys was running at me shouting in Thai Give me your bag, he had stopped running and was away from me , Luckily i do speak enough thai to have a conversation with him! i told him he was the age of my son and would he do that to his mother, he was shocked and took 1 small step forward i also took a step forward - ( ready to hand over the bag than get the 2 ft stick on my head) but he was scared to death i told him again would you do this to your mother and in the end he said ok give me 100 baht i told him to get on his bike now and leave whilst he had chance. His friend told him to come on and they sped off, If it wasnt for what happened with Lydia i would have had a 2ft stick on the back of my head. I have the reg and i know the little bastards faces . But luckily the outcome was OK If he had come closer i would have handed over my bag but he was scared to death. Maybe it was their first snatch.
Hi Andrew, I’ve known Ron Raine for more than 40 years now and worked with him in Liverpool, we were apprentices together and have been life long friends ever since. I was actually on the phone to Ron when the attack happened and I could hear the screams in the background as he dropped the mobile to confront the Thai thief. I called him back because I was concerned and he told me what happened. I can tell you that this thief was very lucky to get away with his 400 baht because if he had harmed Martin he would have been a dead man. Ron took a very sensible approach and put the safety of Martin first but imagine what may have happened if the thief did not accept the money and carried out his threat. What would have been the Thai police attitude to either a badly injured or even fatally wounded Thai even though he was a thief caught in the act harming the son of a British citizen? How would the Thai laws interpret such a situation? I can only thank God that my friend and his family came out of this unharmed and we are not now protesting for the release of an honest man being held in a Thai prison for protecting his family.