LOEI: A long friendship ended in tragedy on the night of August 30, when a man visiting his buddy’s house without warning asked if he could have his friend’s wife.

At 7 am on August 31, Pak Chom Police duty officer Thongphum Premlao received a call from a villager, who reported a dead body hidden in a banana plantation near Ban Na Khor Village 12, in Pak Chom District.

The body was identified as that of Suphachai Phawan, 56. He had been slashed in the face and beaten with a blunt instrument.

Questioning Suphachai’s neighbors, police pieced together the details of how the victim met his fate.

Neighbors said that at about 7 pm the night before, Suphachai’s friend Jaroen Jan-ngam, 43, came to the victim’s house.

This, however, was no ordinary social call; Jaroen had a somewhat bold request to make of his buddy.

Not one to beat around the bush, Jaroen asked Suphachai if he could take his wife, Wilai, 40, to live with him; this despite the fact that Jaroen already had his own wife and children to love and look after.

At the time, Wilai was in Udon Thani, where she was reportedly being cured of some black magic spells she believed Jaroen had placed upon her.

Unsurprisingly, Suphachai did not react well to the request. A scuffle broke out and Jaroen, perhaps having prepared for the worst, pulled out a knife and slashed his friend across the face. While Suphachai was reeling in pain, Jaroen grabbed a length of tamarind wood and beat his friend to death, police said.

Jaroen dragged the body to the banana plantation to hide it, then went back to get Suphachai’s motorbike, which he torched at a corn silo. After returning home, Jaroen drank a large amount of pesticide in an apparent attempt to kill himself.

He was not successful, however. Friends took him to Pak Chom Hospital, where police later caught up with him and arrested him for Suphachai’s murder.

NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Anyone calling in to Wat Pa Satharuam on August 22 could be forgiven for thinking they’d stumbled upon the aftermath of a natural disaster, seeing row after row of coffins lined up on the the temple grounds.

Anyone waiting a little longer, however, would get even more of a shock when, after watching the death rites, the occupants of the 59 coffins began to rise up as if returning from the dead.

The scene was not some voodoo ritual, but a ceremony to rid the faithful of curses and bad karma from previous existences.

From 8 am to 1 pm, participants took turns climbing into the coffins with a bunch of flowers, incense and a candle. They lay down facing west, and monks covered them with shrouds.

Four monks then paraded around the coffins, murmuring incantations and sprinkling holy water from 108 famous temples on the bodies.

Finally, the coffins’ occupants faced east, thus completing their rebirth. The whole process took about five minutes.

Chamlong Kanchanawatana of the organizing committee said, “The ceremony of cleansing bad luck by lying in coffins is an ancient belief. If someone has misfortune, bad karma, obstacles or problems in their lives, then [the ceremony] will bring them good fortune, driving problems and danger out of their lives. It is like death and rebirth, except that all the bad things die along with the old person.”

Wichai Nanthathanathawon, Chairman of the Bangkok-Nakhon Rachasima Friendship Group, which organized the ceremony, said this was the ninth year the ceremony had been held. It was the biggest yet and the largest of its type in the world.

This year it would be particularly auspicious for women born in the year of the goat, dog, ox and snake. Men born in the year of the horse, rabbit, rat and cock would also benefit as, according to astrologers, the Chinese New Year that began on February 8 is not a good time for them, Mr Wichai explained.

The Friendship Group also donated more than 2,500 coffins “to the needy”, he added.

CHIANG MAI: If you happened to have been out drinking in Chiang Mai over the last few months and, after a few too many beers, decided to do the responsible thing and pull over in your car for a rest to sober up before weaving on home, then you may have come across the Buffalo Ladyboy Gang.

The gang has not only robbed more than 40 drunks, but also performed oral sex on their slumbering victims to boot.

Police at Muang Chiang Mai Police Station have this year been receiving a slew of reports of robberies from sheepish men who claim that while they were sleeping in their cars, a group of four rather camp crooks have broken in and made off with their possessions.

As all the attacks happened very late at night and the victims were often three sheets to the wind, police had been unable to bring enough evidence to apprehend the gang – despite having a good idea of who they were.

On August 20, however, this all changed when Sirichai Wutinansurasing, 34, walked into the station with a familiar tale of woe.

K. Sirichai told police that the night before he had been out on the town in Chiang Mai. Setting off home, he realised that he was in no condition to drive. Sensibly, he parked his car on the side of the Chiang Mai-Lampang road to sleep off the effects of all the alcohol he had consumed. Not so sensibly, he forgot to lock the car door.

The next thing he knew there were people in his car hunting for his valuables. Perhaps more worrying was the fact that one of the intruders was fumbling with his belt. Instantly sobering up, K. Sirichai fought off the intruders, who ran away while shrieking girlishly.

K. Sirichai noticed one of the four attackers was also morbidly obese, and thus had difficulty keeping up with his friends. K. Sirichai also got a good look at the man who tried to molest him.

On hearing these graphic descriptions, police instantly realised that this fitted all the hallmarks of an attack by the infamous Gang Kratoy Khwai, or the “Buffalo Ladyboy Gang”, so named because of their portly member.

Shown the police black book of known criminal offenders who happened to be of the “third gender”, K. Sirichai was soon able to pinpoint the perpetrators.

Chiang Mai Muang District Police Deputy Superintendent Bunyawat Kertklam then led a team of officers to the gang’s known hideout – a dormitory in Saraphee District.

There police arrested Thanaphat “June” Thepawan, 38; Kritsada “Oh” Wichai, 25; Monchai “Mew” Lamnuan, 24, and Kritichai “Nong Nam Daeng” Kanthaya, 22, the Kratoy Khwai from whom the gang got its name. Police also seized 15 mobile phones, two laptop computers, a gold chain and a number of pawn shop tickets for mobile phones and jewelry.

Confronted with the evidence, the suspects admitted everything. They said that they had robbed at least 40 victims. Their modus operandi was to search for drunks sleeping in their cars who had forgotten to lock the doors. Finding one, they would post one man as a lookout while another took his valuables and the third restrained him. Mew told police he performed oral sex on the hapless drunk as a token of thanks for the stolen loot.

All four were charged with robbery, but it was not reported whether there were any charges of sexual assault.

CHIANG MAI: Some women simply fall head over heels for a man in uniform. One love-sick Bangkok native, presumably with this in mind, found himself in trouble recently after impersonating a police officer in a bid to win the heart of a pretty Lanna girl.

According to the girl’s neighbors, her pursuer, calling himself Pol Maj Krittanan Rattaradee, moved in near her house in Sanpatong district and enjoyed parading around in his uniform telling people that he was there on top-secret business.

The neighbors, sensing that the behavior of the new resident was inappropriate for an officer on a secret mission, became suspicious that Maj Krittanan was not all he was claiming to be.

The trickery finally came to light when, somewhat foolishly, the lovestruck major began showing off his fake ID card, which showed him to be a police major based in Nakhon Ratchasima. One of the neighbors managed to get hold of the card and make a photocopy before returning it.

On the morning of August 11, a group of villagers headed to Sanpatong Police Station with the copy of Maj Krittanan’s ID card to check if he was really an officer of the law. On running the name through police databases, police found that there was no Maj Krittanan on record and the police department that the card stated Maj Krittanan belonged to had ceased to exist some time ago.

Crime Suppression Inspector Maj Suthep Jilo then accompanied the villagers to find Maj Krittanan. This proved easy and the group soon came across their quarry wandering down the Sanpatong-Mae Wang road dressed in full uniform.

On searching Maj Krittanan, police found not only the fake ID card and a plastic toy pistol he kept in his holster, but also a copy of the official stamp of the Governor of Nakhon Ratchasima.

After being hauled into the police station, Krittanan finally admitted that he was just a 36-year-old regular citizen from Pathum Thani, though Krittanan Rattaradee was indeed his real name.

He told police he had met a girl from Sanpatong when she had been living in Bangkok and he had instantly fallen for her. When she moved back to her home town, he followed her.

Every morning he would dress up in full uniform and walk past her house telling her he was off to work on secret business; every evening he would repeat the charade on his way home.

The only purpose he used the uniform and false ID for were to show off to the girl, Krittanan said. He did not explain why exactly he thought the major’s uniform would increase his chances with his sweetheart.

Regardless, police charged him with impersonating a government officer.

UBON RATCHATHANI: Attractive women having relationships with much older and considerably less attractive men for financial benefit is certainly nothing new.

In Isarn, however, some girls have allegedly started using an ingenious method to extract more money from their stingy sugar daddies: having their stomachs injected with chemicals to make them appear pregnant.

Pukki, a 20-year-old college student from Ubon Ratchathani, said some students were using this method to get extra money from businessmen or government officers they have relationships with.

Usually the sugar daddies would give them pocket money of only 300 to 500 baht a month, which is hardly enough for a modern girl these days, she said.

Friends studying in Maha Sarakham province, one of the main student centers of the northeast, had told her that certain clinics would inject chemicals into girls’ stomachs that would make them swell up as if they were pregnant, Pukki said.

This method worked especially well with men who were well known in society, particularly high-ranking officials. When the girls say they are pregnant, almost all of the men are happy to give them as much money as they need for an illegal abortion, she said.

Most of the men want the problem to disappear out of fear that their wives will find out and because of the future costs of having to support an illegitimate child, Pukki explained.

Another Ubon Rachathani college student, 21-year-old “Em”, said that while she had heard of many cases of girls claiming they were pregnant to extort money from their sugar daddies, she had yet to hear of anyone using chemicals to inflate their stomachs.

Em explained that girls’ sponsors would often give excuses and use delaying tactics when the girls asked for money to buy essentials, such as motorbikes, cars and brand-name fashion accessories.

Falsely claiming pregnancy is the surest way to get what you want and students have learned the sure-fire method from TV soap operas, she added.

Dr Wutikrai Mungmai, a doctor with Ubon Ratchathani Provincial Health Department, said that he had not as yet come across the practice of faking pregnancies through stomach injections.

He had, however, heard of a number of clinics offering abortions. These would be cracked down on very soon, he said.