A thief bowed in front of an under-construction 4 metre high Buddha at Wat Boonsri Muneekorn in Bangkok’s Soi Ran-Inthra 46 before stealing three jewelry items from the image.
The stolen items were worth Bt200,000, according to the abbot.
The thief, who was captured by the temple’s CCTV, wore gloves and came with tools to cut glass the image is contained in at around 11.30pm on Saturday, said Phra Chalad Chanthathammo.
The thief appeared to be calm and spent about 30 minutes at the site before prostrating in front of the image and stealing the jewellery, the monk said.
Since 2009, this temple has been subjected to theft 13 times, resulting in some 100 images being stolen. There have been no arrests.
Two Buddha images were stolen from an arch pavilion at the temple on January 15, resulting in the installation of the CCTV cameras.