Man, 27, Arrested for Killing Over Stolen Pumpkins
A 27-year-old man in Chiang Mai killed a 67-year-old pensioner with a knife after catching him stealing pumpkins from his garden, police said.
Mae Thaeng Police in Chiang Mai received a report of a murder near a rice field close to the Pa Cha forest at Ban Pa Jee Wang Daeng in Mae Thaeng district. Officers found the body of Somkiat, 67 years old, bearing signs of being struck in the head with a hard object and cuts to the face. The suspect had fled the scene.
At 19:40, Deputy Inspector Peerappol Kwamkhwang, deputy chief investigator at Mae Thaeng Station, led a team that successfully tracked down the killer: a 27-year-old man named Krisda.
Krisda confessed that he had been running a pumpkin patch near the scene with his father. After the pumpkins began producing fruit, someone repeatedly stole from the garden, making him furious. He decided to stake out the field overnight. Early that morning, he spotted an elderly man bending down to pick three pumpkins from his garden. Krisda approached and asked how many times the man had stolen from him, but the man refused to answer. Seeing three pumpkins in the man's hands, Krisda became enraged, grabbed a knife the man was carrying, and slashed him across the face three times. The man collapsed and died.
