The ‘underwear gang’ is back—stripped, oiled and looking for trouble.
Police in Takeo province’s Tram Kak district blame the skivvy-clad thieves for a spike in property crimes in the rural area.
Authorities thought they had smashed the gang last year, but on the night of May 30, two unidentified, half-nude robbers raided houses in neighboring Leay Bo commune, said Sok Tum, chief of Tram Kak commune police.
Underwear gang members are infamous for their habit of tossing their tops, dropping their trousers and covering themselves in oil—making them hard to identify and even harder to catch.
Sok Tum said cases of underwear gang robberies have been reported in other communes as well.
He said he has given villagers the private phone numbers of all eight police officers under his command so they can report the underwear-clad burglars 24 hours a day.
“We encouraged the villagers to keep watching their neighborhoods,” Sok Tum said. “And they can ring my police anytime.”
Takeo police said underwear gang crimes re-emerged after villagers stopped keeping a close watch for perpetrators, an important step in curbing the crimes the first time.
“The underwear thieves resurface in my region because the villagers stopped [the community watch program] after they were preoccupied with preparations for farming,” Sok Tum said.
Provincial Governor Sou Phirin recently announced that authorities are offering $200 rewards for information leading to the arrest of cow thieves and $375 for arrests in more serious crimes.
“Our strict measures should control the situation,” he said.
The governor also appealed to poor people not to resort to crime.
“If they have nothing to eat,” he said, “they should beg.”
