Four British men have been arrested in Phuket in connection with the violent robbery of a luxury wristwatch worth 2.3 million baht from an American tourist in Thalang district.
Dashcam footage from a trailing vehicle captured the incident on Thursday afternoon. The video shows two assailants ramming a motorcycle ridden by the victim before confronting him at knifepoint and seizing his watch.
Police from Choeng Thale station worked with officers from Sakhu and Thalang to track down the suspects. The vehicle used in the crime, a Ford Everest bearing Bangkok licence plates, was later found abandoned in a rubber plantation in tambon Thepkrasattri.
Forensic teams examined fingerprints and reviewed CCTV, which revealed another white car picking up the robbers after the attack.
Further investigation led authorities to a luxury villa behind the Choeng Thale tambon administration office, where four British men aged between 24 and 27 were taken into custody on Thursday night.
They were identified only as Hussain, Mir, Yanne, and Malique Kai. Police also seized three vehicles, two pistols, and the stolen Audemars Piguet wristwatch.
The robbery occurred at around 4:20pm on Thursday, when two masked men in a car pursued a 40-year-old American lawyer riding a motorcycle back from Boat Avenue in Choeng Thale.
The attackers rammed his motorcycle near Layan Soi 7, threatened him with a knife, and fled with his luxury timepiece.
The victim, who works in Switzerland and holds three passports, reported the crime to Choeng Thale police the following day.
He said he had been visiting Phuket for about 10 days and had travelled to Thailand more than 50 times without ever experiencing such an incident.
He valued the stolen watch, an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak in rose gold, at more than 2.3 million baht.
The man praised Phuket police for their swift and professional handling of the case. He added that the ordeal had not shaken his confidence in Thailand, which he still considered his second home and a safe travel destination.
