TAR’S NASTY PARKING SPAT, PATT’S HUBBY WOES, MAI’S PRICKLY FRIEND
Brave words, quickly recanted
Actor Navin “Tar” Yavapolkul and his wife are pressing ahead with legal action after a highly publicised incident in which a motorist parked them in on an outing to Bang Saen beach then allegedly smeared their name when challenged about it.
Tar and his wife, Passawee “Numwanz” Payakbud, last week called in the lawyers after a relatively peaceful beachside incident in which a motorist parked in their van for two hours ended in a fiery row on social media.
The row broke out after the man, driving a Honda City, parked in Tar’s vehicle on Saturday, and left the handbrake on, forcing Tar and a group of five or six friends to do the rounds of locals and beachgoers asking if they’d seen the Honda City’s owner. They were joined by traders and others willing to help until the group swelled to about 20. They also contacted the local tourist office, local body inspectors, police and a tow-truck company before the owner was finally located.
Numwanz, who waited by their car with their baby daughter, said the owner, identified in the media as “Wit”, aged 19, finally turned up after two hours but rather than admitting he was the owner or apologising, simply asked, “Is someone parking you in?”
“He asked two or three times and I asked him if he knew the owner. He said nothing, got into the car and didn’t get out again,” she wrote on social media, after the man’s girlfriend, identified in the media as “Nan”, complained about the way Tar and Numwanz had conducted themselves.
In her social media post, which set off the row, Nan claimed Tar doubled back after Wit agreed to move his vehicle and carved an unpleasant message in the dust of the vehicle’s window, as well as leaving a handwritten note which he supposedly scrawled on the roof of the car.
Tar and Numwanz insist they did not return to the scene or leave the couple any message. “We just wanted to get home. Our daughter was covered in mosquito bites and we had another young child with us. Apart from that, one of my friends who came with us is seven months pregnant.
“We would not want them exposed to such an incident and had no interest in escalating it,” Numwanz said, saying the matter was now in the hands of the pair’s lawyers as Nan, whom she said was evidently seeking her moment in the spotlight at their expense, had defamed them.
Later she returned to social media, appealing to fans who had spotted a threat on social media left by the Honda couple in which they suggested Tar and Numwanz might come to grief if both sides happened to meet again.
Numwanz said if police hadn’t been there, she wonders if they would have made it home safely. “These types are very scary,” she said in a message with the hashtag, “Not only did you abuse us, but you threatened us as well”.
The threat of legal action finally prompted an apology by the couple, who said they didn’t mean to smear Tar and his wife. Pleading for sympathy, they said they have three children to support and didn’t want to go to court.
“I didn’t actually see Tar write the note; an auntie at the scene told me she saw him return,” Wit said, defending his actions. An image he posted from the scene showed the auntie figure, dressed in black, but reporters who visited the scene were unable to find her. Nan said she had asked police to view CCTV footage and suggested Wit and Nan had concocted the story and written the note themselves.
Both sides did their best to publicise the incident on social media. Numwanz said she filmed it on Facebook Live, while also taking a clip of the vehicle’s registration details. Wit, meanwhile, seemed eager to write up his version of events as soon as he spotted Tar returning from the beach.
“As soon as he saw a celebrity was involved, he wanted to claim his moment of fame,” Numwanz said. “Sorry, but if you want to get famous you have to do it the right way,” she said. “These people were a laugh right from the moment they showed us their true colours in parking in such a manner.” The couple’s lawyer has since laid a complaint with Bang Khen police. The row continues.
Guns and roses for my girl
Actress and TV presenter Napapa “Patt” Tantrakul says she has yet to make up with her convicted drug financier husband after he threatened to get a gun and blow his brains out.
Her husband, Akarakit “Benz Racing” Worarojcharoendet, made the threat in a social media post on Nov 15, and followed it up with a TV interview in which he said he was stressed about his wife commenting on their relationship in the media.
“People keeping asking her what she wants from our relationship to the point where I can no longer be myself,” he complained. “If I post anything, it turns into a story. When we talk together as a family we can make sense to each other, so why does she have to go and talk to them?”
Despite being a high-profile motor racer, Benz says he has yet to get used to being in the public eye since his marriage to Patt a couple of years ago. Patt, who has asked Benz to choose between his role as her husband or being a father to their young son, claimed Benz’s message about the gun, which he tagged to her, was a clear enough indication of where he stood, and last week promptly downgraded his status to mere friend.
“From this point on I won’t talk about him again,” she said. She admitted she had yet to speak to Benz herself, as he would not answer the phone.
The saga comes after recent claims that Benz, who was released on bail in September after his conviction in March last year for laundering drugs money, was spotted with another woman, supposedly his old flame.
Patt said she had asked him about the reports, which he denied. However, she admitted he tends to flee for days at a time whenever she tries to pressure him into saying whether he is still committed to her or their family.
Netizens did not take warmly to Benz’s message about the gun, forcing him to close his Facebook account after a blizzard of criticism. On Tuesday afternoon he said he had set aside space on his Instagram account especially for critics who wanted to let off steam. More encouragingly, he said he had arranged a time to meet Patt for a meal so they could clear the air.
Patt and Benz posted images of a bunch of red roses he left her overnight on the windscreen of her car, to mark the couple’s second wedding anniversary. The two later met, though did not get a chance to talk in detail. The saga continues.
Fan, talking cactus crash shop
Actress Davika “Mai” Hoorne admits she is worried about her safety after an unhinged member of her fan club turned up at her cafe and refused to leave.
Mai recounted the incident last week after the man turned up at her city cafe several times recently and had to be turfed out by police.
“He showed up, claimed he was my boyfriend, and started talking to a cactus plant he had brought along with him,” Mai said.
The man turned up in the morning, and staff were able to get police to invite him to leave. However, he showed up again at 9pm, two hours after the shop’s closing time, when he slipped into a dark corner of the car park where he waited until midnight. Once again, staff had to call police.
Mai said she had left a record with police about the incident but decided not to pursue legal action as the man was clearly unwell. While she had not talked to his family, she would like to urge them to take better care of him and not let him out again.
“I encounter episodes this often. People arrive at the cafe, claim they are friends, and wait for me to turn up,” she said, adding she was not at the cafe at the time. Her staff, she said, filmed the interloper and contacted her, urging Mai to stay away until police had sorted out the problem.
“We have CCTV, a security guard, and police on patrol, so the cafe is perfectly safe. I suspect it is me they want to talk to anyway,” she joked. “However, I am concerned for my safety, as I am worried that he might turn up at events or at my home,” she added.