Woman Accused Of Theft At Laundromat Vows To Clear Her Name
A 30-year-old woman in Ratchaburi is fighting theft accusations after removing clothes from a laundromat washing machine and later finding 1,520 baht inside, insisting she never saw the 20,000 baht the original owner claims to have lost.
On July 3, Ms. A (pseudonym), age 30, filed a complaint at the "Sai Yai Tong Rod" coordination center in Bangkok seeking justice and to prove her innocence after being accused of stealing 20,000 baht from a laundromat in Khlong Takhat subdistrict, Potharam district, Ratchaburi province.
Ms. A explained that on the morning of June 27, she brought clothes to wash at the laundromat and needed four washing machines. Finding only two available, she used those first. She noticed two other machines with finished loads but no owners present, so she removed the clothes to a nearby basket to use the machines, finding no money or valuables inside. Shortly after, she saw two children take a basket of clothes out of the shop. She returned home as usual.
About an hour later, she returned to collect her laundry and found 1,520 baht in coins and bills in one machine. Assuming it was her own money left behind, she kept it. That evening on June 28, the owner of the clothes she had removed came to her home accusing her of stealing 20,000 baht left in the washing machine. Ms. A denied the accusation, insisting the 1,520 baht was hers and she never saw such a large sum. The complainant remained convinced and vowed to pursue the case.
On June 29, she went to Potharam police station to file a daily record as evidence, but police said they couldn't act until the complainant formally filed a report. On June 30, police coordinated through her employer to arrange mediation at the station. The complainant insisted she stole the money; Ms. A denied it and declared readiness to fight the case to prove her innocence.
She came forward to Sai Yai Tong Rod because she feared being wrongly charged with a crime she didn't commit and learned the complainant claimed to have video evidence. She worried the footage might show only limited angles or be presented incompletely. She obtained CCTV footage from the laundromat as evidence and is confident it will clearly prove her innocence. More troubling is learning the complainant is the landowner from whom her employer rents space for worker housing. This weighs heavily on her, fearing the dispute could cause problems for her employer.
