Two Bangkok aunties are facing legal charges after wielding an axe and metal pole at a pickup truck that was illegally parked in front of their home this week. The story has become the talk of the town, and the aunties spoke about how they’d had to deal with people who blocked their driveway every single day.
A video of the incident in Prawet district on Sunday shows the aunties vigorously honking at a white pickup truck as they were try to exit their driveway. When no one came to move the car — much to the shock of locals — the two women fetched an axe and metal pole from their house and started smashing the truck. Some bystanders screamed in surprise, but others cheered them on.
The aunties, now identified as Rattanachat Sangyoktrakarn, 61, (the metal pole auntie) and Ranee Sangyoktrakarn, 57, (the axe auntie), also appear in another video taken in the aftermath of the smashing. The axe auntie is seen scolding the truck’s owner, Rachanikorn Lertwasana, 37, the woman wearing the black T-shirt.
“If your mom and dad were sick and needed to go to the hospital, what would you do [if a car blocked your driveway]? What part of your brains do you use to function? You look like an idiot,” she said to Rachanikorn.
The axe auntie went on, “If you had conscience, you would have known you couldn’t park here. A house owner should be able to leave their house whenever they want. That’s their business. It’s called privacy!”
Rachanikorn told the police that she only parked in front of the aunties’ home for 10 minutes to shop at the nearby markets, and that she thought the house was deserted since there were several signs posted at the gates which were fastened with cables.
If Ratchanikorn had read carefully, those signs weren’t eviction notices, but they were the family’s missives about why markets should not operate around their house.
In response to the public interest, the aunties held a press conference outside their home yesterday.
They claimed that they had an appointment to get to and the truck was in parked gear (as any car should be when parked) so they could not push it away. The two aunties honked at Rachanikorn’s truck for nearly 30 minutes before deciding to smash it.
“We honked. We called 191. No one came to us. What would we have done? Us aunties had to take action to get rid of this object that blocked our driveway,” said another auntie in the house named Boonsri Sangyoktrakarn, 61.
This is not a one-time incident. Boonsri spoke about her years of frustration that her family has had to deal with when people block their driveway every day.
“We’re surrounded by markets — left and right. Cars block our driveway every single day, and everyday we wait until these people finish their shopping at the markets to be able to get out of our house!”
Meanwhile, the metal pole auntie added, “The truck’s owner admitted she heard the honking, but she didn’t come right away because she hadn’t finished shopping. That’s what all of them told us. Wouldn’t you be angry if you were us?”
The aunties said that when she built her house a decade ago, there were no markets nearby. They claimed that the land was initially designated for housing, yet the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration allowed markets to set up in the area.
The truck’s owner was fined THB500 for obstructing the aunties’ driveway. Police will summon the two aunties to accept charges of property damage and carrying weapons next Monday. The investigation is ongoing, Post Today reported.
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