Thai netizens are demanding the arrest of four foreign tourists who were caught on CCTV in the wee hours of this morning vandalizing Chiang Mai’s most famous landmark and historical fortress, Tha Phae Gate.
Northern locals woke up to find the text “Scougge Lee B” spray-painted onto the ancient gate, which is located in Chiang Mai’s Mueang district.
Shortly after photos of the vandalism began circulating, Facebook user Chang Nightster released CCTV footage showing what appears to be four Western men tagging the landmark at about 4am.
In the nearly six-minute clip, the presumed ringleader can be seen walking up and spray-painting the wall as the others stand and watch.
Their clumsy, childish movements seem to indicate they were intoxicated. However, since there is no audio, their conversation cannot be made out.
After they finished tagging the wall, about two minutes into the clip, the man who led the pack can be seen hailing a tuk tuk and engaging in what appeared to be unsuccessful fare negotiations with one of his companions before walking off. Ultimately, none took the ride.
In the two hours since the post has been published, the clip has received more than 7,000 views and been shared almost 300 times. Pissed-off netizens are demanding that police take legal action.
“Arrest them. Make it front page news and humiliate them publicly,” wrote one.
“We have to track them down and punish them to make an example out of this. This is why our country is ruined and people’s properties are destroyed,” wrote another.
Meanwhile, the meaning behind “Scougge Lee B” still remains unknown, though the online community has been tossing around a few ideas.
“The official English language translation is ‘Scouser Lee B,’ which means Lee B is from Liverpool. Not clever whoever did this,” UK native Steve Johnson wrote on Facebook.
While a quick Google search we did ourselves turned up nothing related to “Scougge Lee B,” the closest we came was self-proclaimed YouTube game “Scourge Lee.”
So, our theories so far include a gamer who made a spelling error or a “Lee B from Liverpool” desperate to leave his mark.
Nevertheless, we’ll be certain to update you as soon as netizens’ demands for justice come to fruition.
