UBON RATCHATHANI: Attractive women having relationships with much older and considerably less attractive men for financial benefit is certainly nothing new.

In Isarn, however, some girls have allegedly started using an ingenious method to extract more money from their stingy sugar daddies: having their stomachs injected with chemicals to make them appear pregnant.

Pukki, a 20-year-old college student from Ubon Ratchathani, said some students were using this method to get extra money from businessmen or government officers they have relationships with.

Usually the sugar daddies would give them pocket money of only 300 to 500 baht a month, which is hardly enough for a modern girl these days, she said.

Friends studying in Maha Sarakham province, one of the main student centers of the northeast, had told her that certain clinics would inject chemicals into girls’ stomachs that would make them swell up as if they were pregnant, Pukki said.

This method worked especially well with men who were well known in society, particularly high-ranking officials. When the girls say they are pregnant, almost all of the men are happy to give them as much money as they need for an illegal abortion, she said.

Most of the men want the problem to disappear out of fear that their wives will find out and because of the future costs of having to support an illegitimate child, Pukki explained.

Another Ubon Rachathani college student, 21-year-old “Em”, said that while she had heard of many cases of girls claiming they were pregnant to extort money from their sugar daddies, she had yet to hear of anyone using chemicals to inflate their stomachs.

Em explained that girls’ sponsors would often give excuses and use delaying tactics when the girls asked for money to buy essentials, such as motorbikes, cars and brand-name fashion accessories.

Falsely claiming pregnancy is the surest way to get what you want and students have learned the sure-fire method from TV soap operas, she added.

Dr Wutikrai Mungmai, a doctor with Ubon Ratchathani Provincial Health Department, said that he had not as yet come across the practice of faking pregnancies through stomach injections.

He had, however, heard of a number of clinics offering abortions. These would be cracked down on very soon, he said.

PATHUM THANI: As anyone who remembers the case of the football fan shot dead in Pattaya for cheering too loudly while watching Italy’s opening match of the 2006 world cup will know, the tragi-comic overreaction is something of a staple in the Thai press.

One unfortunate fellow fell victim to this trend on July 11, receiving far more than he deserved for complaining about shoddy workmanship.

The incident came to light at 11:30 am when police were called to Krung Siam St Carlos Hospital in Pathum Thani, where they were met by Sachakhri Anussarawat, 45, a lecturer at a well-known university and advisor to an export company.

Khun Sachakhri was in a sorry state with most of his hair shaved off and a large needle sticking out of his head.

He was about to be wheeled to the operating theater to have the needle removed from his skull.

He told police that in the morning that he had taken his shoes to be repaired at a little stall under an overpass on the Pathum Thani-Rangsit highway.

When the work was finished, K. Sachakhri was less than pleased with what he felt was shoddy workmanship and told the stall holder as much.

The young cobbler Charoen, however, did not take criticism of his craftsmanship lightly and an argument broke out.

The cobbler, unable to contain his rage, grabbed a needle used for threading soles, ran round from behind his stall and rammed it full force into K. Sachakhri’s head before showing a clean pair of heels and fleeing at full speed, abandoning his business.

The stunned K. Sachakhri, still conscious despite the needle wedged in his skull, hailed a taxi and asked to be rushed to hospital, from where the police were called.

Dr Phatrawit Ratkul, who operated on K. Sachakhri, said that the needle was wedged two centimeters into the skull.

K. Sachakhri was lucky that the tip of the needle was slightly bent otherwise it would likely have gone right into his brain and killed him, Dr Phatrawit added.

Police are now hunting for Charoen, who is 25 to 30 years old.

NAKON PATHOM: Many a wife would be happy that her aging husband can still “go all night” without the aid of those little blue pills.

As the saying goes, however, you can have too much of a good thing – and a high sex drive can be troublesome, even fatal, as one even unfortunate lothario found out at the end of last month after he pushed his wife for one all-night session too many.

At about 11 pm on JuneA 25, Lt Bunsak Tipma, an investigating office at Muang Nakhon Pathom Police Station, had an unusual call from a tearful woman saying that she had accidentally killed her husband.

At the scene – a motorcycle repair shop with a bedroom at the back – police found Yuphin Juprasert, 42, sitting weeping hysterically on the bed next to the body of her husband, Chaiwat Juprasert, 52. Chaiwat was still fully clothed, but had a pair of woman’s knickers wrapped round his arm.

When she had calmed down enough to talk, Yuphin told police that she hadn’t meant her husband any harm, but she couldn’t take any more of his nocturnal advances as she had to work hard and needed sleep.

Chaiwat, despite being well into middle age, had phenomenal staying power and an enormous sex drive. Every night he would demand sex five or six times and each time would last for no less than half an hour, leaving little time for sleep, Yuphin explained. If she said she wasn’t in the mood, Chaiwat would become angry and accuse her of cheating on him.

The night of his death, Chaiwat had been drinking with friends and came home as insatiable as ever. Yuphin, by this point, had been fast asleep for some time and in no mood to be woken for a multi-hour sexathon. She told her husband as much.

Chaiwat, as always, refused to take no for an answer and became angry. When he tried to force himself on her, Yuphin fought back, grabbing at his throat and holding on until he let her go, she tearfully told police.

When Yuphin removed her hands from his neck, she found that she had done more than just resist his amorous advances – Chaiwat was dead.

Police, unmoved by Yuphin’s tearful confession and tales of bedtime woe, charged her with murder.

PHRAE: Two teachers in Phrae province were left fuming on June 23 after asking their local council for help in ridding their house of a wasps’ nest only to come back and find that the fumigators had rid them not only of the wasps, but also of half their house.

Praphan Saisa-aat, 51, and his wife, K. Rachanee, 53, were first pestered by the wasps two days earlier when one stung K. Praphan on the head as he was cutting the grass. When he went to investigate where the aggressive insect had come from, he found a nest in a ventilation pipe leading to an enclosed area under the house, which is raised up on stilts.

To prevent further attacks, K. Praphan bought some insecticide. “When I sprayed the insecticide onto the nest, the wasps flew out from under the house and into the house itself,” K. Praphan said.

“My wife and I rushed into the bedroom [until the wasps left]. On [June 23] morning, I called the municipality office and asked for help to get rid of the wasps. The municipality sent workers round with a fumigator, but after about five minutes there was an explosion. My house, which cost 700,000 baht and was built only 10 years ago, was badly damaged and my computer, air conditioner, television, fridge, hi-fi and furniture, with a combined value of more than 300,000 baht, were all destroyed,” K. Praphan added.

A reporter at the scene said that many of the couple’s possessions had been blown clear of the house and that both stories of the raised brick abode had been damaged.

K. Praphan’s worldly possessions were not the only things damaged in the explosion, as the three hapless exterminators – Od, Phiset and Kaow – all sustained injuries.

Od said that at the time of the explosion, he and his two colleagues were fumigating the space under the house with pesticide of the type used to kill aedes aegypti – the striped mosquito that transmits dengue fever. After about five minutes, however, the mixture exploded, sending him and his two colleagues flying in different directions, though none of them were seriously injured.

Lt Col Meedech Kengsanthia, head of Phrae Forensic Police, said that when the insecticide was sprayed under the house, the pressure of the mixture would have been increased as there was little ventilation. This, combined with the heat, could have caused it to explode, Col Meedech explained.

Maj Somchai Dentee, duty inspector at Muang Phrae Police Station, said that the three exterminators had yet to be charged with any offenses as police were waiting for a report from Forensic Police in Lampang.

Phatphong Phongnuan, deputy mayor of Muang Phrae, said that after examining the house, he found no evidence suggesting that the explosion was caused by the negligence of the municipality employees. This method of driving out wasps has been used many times before and, as far as he knew, in Thailand there have been no previous incidents of explosions.

K. Praphan and K. Rachanee will receive some kind of compensation for the destruction, K. Phatphong said, but as for how much, they will have to wait and see what the regulations allow.

BANGKOK: As the international media has been puzzling recently over the mystery of why five dismembered human feet have washed up on the beaches of British Columbia over the past year – the most recent find being on June 16 – Thailand now has its own body-part puzzle to ponder: a severed arm found on the tracks at Hualamphong Railway Station in the heart of Bangkok on June 12.

After spotting the rather rotten arm lying on the track at 2:10 pm, a passenger notified station officers.

A closer inspection by police, a doctor and rescue volunteers determined that the missing limb was a right arm severed at the elbow, most probably from a woman.

From the decayed state and foetid stench of the limb, police believe it was severed from its owner about five days before its discovery.

The arm, blackened and covered in oil, had no tattoos, jewelery or other markings that might aid identification.

Maj Sirirat Kongthanajirakul, an inspector with the Railway Police, said the original owner was most likely a women owing to the size of the arm and the shape of the fingers.

As for how it found its way to the station, Maj Sirirat said that she didn’t believe the limb’s owner was murdered.

No attempt had been made to conceal the arm or hide its identity, so it was unlikely that someone had chopped it off and thrown it on the track in order to dispose of it, she explained.

A more likely explanation, Maj Sirirat explained, is that the owner was hit by the train. The force likely severed the limb, which got stuck to the train’s undercarriage – where it remained until it stopped in Hualamphong, where it finally fell onto the tracks.

Despite this hypothesis, police have not ruled out the possibility that the body part’s owner was an assault victim. Police have contacted all of Thailand’s train stations to check for any reports of recent accidents on the tracks.

When he was asked for a comment on the grisly find, Maj Gen Chokchai Deeprasert, commander of the Railway Police, said that he wouldn’t like to speculate because the incident had not been reported to him and he didn’t know all the details.