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Published on January 19, 2008

Phaholyothin police, whose jurisdiction covers the Government Savings Bank (GSB) branch at Lat Prao Soi 1/1 that was robbed by the lone gunman, said yesterday that the suspect "has very hairy forearms".

Station chief Colonel Arkhom Janthanalach said police were working hard to solve the case despite very few clues. "We are looking for witnesses who might have seen the helmet or the clothes worn by the robber left abandoned anywhere," he added.

Later, police spokesman  Pongsaphat Pongcharoen   pleaded with the public, asking them not to view police efforts as a laughing matter, saying that the seemingly useless clue - the helmet mugshot - was not, well, completely useless.

He said it was a unique helmet model, with a silver reflective visor, that could have been imported from Canada and was available only at one shop in Bangkok. He said the two women who witnessed the robbery described what they saw to a police artist, who then worked out the mugshot based solely on the only accounts given to him.

Web users posted messages ridiculing the police on many media websites, saying the mugshot resembled a spaceman or an alien astronaut - and even Robocop.

Pongsaphat said such a vague mugshot would not normally be released publicly or to the press but circulated internally among police investigators as reference information.

Corporal Phanumart Julmool, the police artist, said this was the first time he had drawn a sketch of a criminal suspect with his face fully covered.

 "I followed what the witnesses told me about how the suspect looked. They said the sketch looked remarkably close to the suspect," he added.

The lone robber  threatened bank tellers with a pistol, swept Bt200,000 from a drawer into a bag and fled.

The Nation