PHUKET police believe they have cracked a case that involved a cunning EMS theft on Phuket of a top-line camera and lens valued at more than 160,000 baht.

The EMS package of camera and lens was supposed to be delivered to a client at Rawai Post Office back in July but when Anutyakorn Itthid-Asakorn, 39, went to pick up the parcel, she discovered someone had beaten her to it.

She called in Chalong police and today, officers at the station produced two people they say were involved in the subtle theft.

Payuk Narkkee, 25, and Rachata Painjid 27, deny their guilt. Both men once worked in the camera store in Pattaya where Khun Anutyakorn, who runs a camera store in Chalong, placed an order for EMS delivery of a super-expensive Canon EOS 5 D Mark ll (Body) and an EF 70-200 mm lens.

Chalong police delved into the circumstances of the EMS delivery that went astray and discovered that the camera and lens package had been signed for at Rawai Post Office by local motorcycle taxi driver Ya Pankeaw, 53.

Khun Ya looked at a lineup of photographs of people connected with the Pattaya camera store and the EMS process and identified Khun Payuk as the man who had paid him 200 baht to pick up the package on Phuket.

Police allege that, knowing the EMS delivery was on the way from Pattaya to Phuket, Khun Payuk caught a bus from Pattaya to Phuket to supply Khun Ya with the information he needed to intercept the package.

Police hauled in Khun Payuk at his Bangkok apartment on Saturday and arrested Khun Rachata in Chonburi.

However, while police believe they have cracked the case, the two men continue to deny involvement and Khun Anutyakorn still does not know the whereabouts of her camera and lens.