Aussie tourist robbed Bangkok bank to pay for flight home
A penniless Aussie tourist decided desperate measures were needed after he ran out of money while holidaying in Thailand.
Zachary Cronin, aged 23, robbed a bank in Bangkok wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and armed with a toy gun.
Shouting the solitary word ‘money’ at a cashier, he initially got away with 170,000 baht (A$6600) but the hapless thief’s plan came unstuck when he made his getaway on foot down a dead-end alleyway.
He was cornered there by a police officer who was in the bank at the time and gave chase.
Aumnart Harnchana, deputy chief of Bang Sue police station, said Cronin resorted to robbery in order to buy a plane ticket back to Australia.
Police said he had spent all his money during a month-long stay in the Nana red-light area of the Thai capital.
Cronin faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted although no date for a first court appearance has been set yet.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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