Last week a man was arrested in connection with a house robbery that took place in Bangkok almost 11 years ago which involved five other suspects who have already been detained. It suggests police can pursue old cases effectively if they put their mind to it.
This particular case is worth recalling because by accident it led to the person who was robbed landing in hot water himself. The more the case unravelled the more bizarre it became.
It began in a relatively straightforward manner when in Nov 2011 a civil servant reported the theft of 5 million baht from his Bangkok house while he was attending his daughter's wedding. He explained the stolen money was the dowry for his daughter.
Things began to get a bit cloudy when police said they seized 18 million baht from suspects they had nabbed and believed the thieves had taken at least 100 million baht in all, rather than the meagre 5 million reported.
The thieves added a bit of spice when they claimed that in the house they saw many bags stuffed with banknotes. Now that's enough to even arouse the curiosity of Inspector Clouseau.
The civil servant explained the whole thing was simply "a misunderstanding", but alas that did not convince investigators and he was transferred to an inactive post, the traditional position reserved for misunderstood civil servants.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission then got involved and found the gentleman guilty of being "unusually wealthy" and in 2018 seized 65 million baht of his assets. He also served a 10-month jail sentence for alleged false asset declarations.
With the final suspect arrested it is almost case closed, but it was quite a case while it lasted.
Bags of surprise
Talking of bags stuffed with money sparks memories of an unusual case in 2004. While cycling to work in Bangkok one morning a security guard stumbled across two large plastic bags on the roadside which happened to contain 9.5 million baht. After overcoming the initial shock he was faced with the dilemma of either handing over the money to police or sneaking off home with the loot. He chose the latter.
However, instead of keeping a low profile he couldn't resist going to the local temple, dishing out generous sums to everyone and showing off luxury items. Inevitably news of the low-paid security guard suddenly "splashing the cash" prompted a knock at the door from the local constabulary and like the bags he discovered, he was stuffed.
It turned out the money had literally fallen off the back of a lorry, in this case a security truck with dodgy back doors which refused to shut properly. It was a bit of a worry that not much concern was expressed over the wretched truck responsible for transporting millions of baht having back doors hanging off the hinges.
A Gorbachev moment
World leaders have paid tribute to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev who was widely regarded as one of the "good guys" and did much to ease tensions during the Cold War.
This column has a special attachment to Gorbachev because it was unintentionally responsible for creating the myth that the Soviet leader was a supporter of Wigan Athletic football club.
In 1987 he announced that the Soviet Union was ending the jamming of BBC radio broadcasts to his country.
This was a major breakthrough and the following week in PostScript I suggested, purely as a joke, that the reason for this move was that Gorbachev liked listening to the BBC's English football results on Saturday nights.
I pondered over what team he might support and suggested Wigan Athletic would be a good choice, a small club which seemed to have the right working class background that would appeal to a socialist leader. End of silly story.
Well, not quite.
London calling
A few days later I was horrified to get a call from the BBC in England saying newspapers were carrying stories that Gorbachev was a Wigan fan according to reports originating from Bangkok.
I explained it was just a whimsical item written for fun in what is supposed to be a humour column and clearly not meant to be taken seriously.
However, the club had apparently already sent match programmes to the Kremlin and for a long period reports on Wigan often mentioned Gorbachev as being a keen supporter.
Thankfully it eventually became accepted that Gorbachev's support for Wigan was purely a myth. But for a while the story had legs of its own.
Bedtime reading
It is always nice to come across a new word and last week came the discovery I am a "librocubularist". It sounds quite impressive but only means "someone who reads in bed".
It seemed appropriate to learn more about this exciting new word and I consulted Merriam-Webster, which informed me that the word was sesquipedalian, which didn't help at all.
They went on to explain that sesquipedalian means a long word with many syllables and librocubularist certainly qualifies in that respect.
For the curious, the Latin "sesqui" is used in modern English to mean "one and a half times". I am getting rapidly out of my depth here so that's enough Latin for the time being.
Anyway, tonight when I nod off clutching a John le Carre tome, I can dream about the joy of being a dedicated "librocubularist".
