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Thailand nabs "ponytail bandit" at cheap Bangkok hotel (Roundup)

Feb 14, 2008, 8:49 GMT

Bangkok - Thai police have arrested the 'ponytail bandit,' an American woman accused of holding up banks in three US states, at a hotel in Bangkok's budget-traveller district, officials confirmed Thursday. Acting on a request from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Thai police on Wednesday arrested Morgan Michelle Hoke, 21, at the Cha Cha Villa Hotel on Khao Sarn Road, a district famed for its cheap lodgings for backpackers, said Police Major General Direk Manolihakul, Acting Immigration Commissioner. Authorities revoked Hoke's Thai visa and are keeping her in the country Immigration Detention centre in Bangkok until she is deported back to the US, where she faces an arrest warrant. Hoke and her 26-year-old husband, Stuart Michael Romine, are suspected of robbing banks in May 2007 in Austin, Texas; Roseville, California; and Lynwood, Washington, near Seattle, US authorities said. In each case, surveillance cameras captured a slender young woman sporting a baseball cap and ponytail. Romine's whereabouts are unknown, according to a police statement issued in Austin, Texas.

Asia-Pacific News

Thailand nabs "ponytail bandit" at cheap Bangkok hotel (Roundup)

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