Thai Police’s ‘lion undercover mission’ helps pin down burglar during Lunar New Year
Officials gradually move towards suspect while dancing to the beats, arrest accused in a clever mission
A video of Thai police officers is going viral over social media, in which they are seen taking cover in a lion’s costume to arrest a burglar accused of stealing Buddhist artefacts. They hide inside the costume, keep dancing so as to not alarm their target, and once they identify him clearly, gradually move towards him.
According to ‘The Guardian’, the accused, who is a 33-year-old man, allegedly stole items worth two million Thai baht along with two Buddha statues.
Officers from Thailand’s Metropolitan Police Bureau went undercover as a lion dance crew in order to catch a wanted burglar who had managed to evade arrest several times before pic.twitter.com/m7SE820gsG
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 20, 2026
The officers, with their clever sense of not being detected, posed as traditional dance troupe members. As soon as their target’s identity was confirmed, the officers pinned the suspect to the ground and arrested him.
X users are going into a frenzy with this ‘undercover’ mission, literally. One user @OlivierMWATSIM1 commented, “Clever tactic, disguises like that can really catch people off guard.” Another X user @Money_printer82 wrote, “Literally undercover police (with a thumbs up emoji)”.
