Man Must Pay City for Son’s Fake Abduction

An Anaheim man who faked the kidnaping of his 3-year-old son, distressing his wife and leading Buena Park police on a five-day wild goose chase, was ordered by a judge on Friday to pay $12,500 in restitution and perform 100 hours of community service work.

David Thach, 37, was given permission by North Orange County Municipal Judge Linda Lancet Miller to perform the community service in Georgia and pay the restitution from that state, where his family plans to move.

“You appear to be a man sincere about making amends,” the judge told Thach. Thach had arranged for his brother, Robert, to whisk away the boy, Paul Bao Thach, from the toy department at a Buena Park K mart on Dec. 4, 1984, while he and his wife, Grace, were in another part of the store.

Buena Park police and officers from neighboring police departments worked five days on the case before Thach admitted the boy was safe with his grandfather in Macon, Ga. Police reported that Mrs. Thach had been extremely upset about the boy’s disappearance.

Thach was charged with a misdemeanor count of filing a false police report. He pleaded not guilty but last month changed that to a guilty plea.

Judge Miller placed Thach on three years’ formal probation--which means he must report regularly to a probation officer --and ordered that restitution be paid monthly during the three years. If the restitution is not paid by the end of his three years’ probation, he could be brought back to court for resentencing or have his probation extended.

Thach told the court he has just $2,000 in assets plus a car.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregg Prickett said he was pleased with the judge’s decision. But Andrew V. Arczynski, an attorney for the City of Buena Park, was not.

He asked the court to order Thach to pay full restitution to the City of Buena Park for its expenses in investigating the boy’s disappearance, which he said amounted to $16,671.

The $12,500 the judge ordered covered the cost of police overtime but does not reimburse the city for benefits that accrued during the overtime period or all its expenses, Arczynski said.

“He (Thach) defrauded the people of Buena Park; he should have been ordered to pay every penny,” Arczynski said. The attorney said 10 police investigators had worked full time searching for the Thach boy until the father told police it was a hoax.

Thach and his wife had been operating a motel in Anaheim. He refused to tell reporters what kind of work he would do in Georgia.

Thach’s only statement to reporters was: “My wife and I are still together. Please don’t make a big story about this.”

On Dec. 11, the day his son was returned from Georgia, Thach said he had not foreseen the consequences of his actions.

“I feel very apologetic to the public, and the (Buena Park) Police Department,” he said then. Thach first told police he had the boy sent to Georgia because he wanted the boy’s grandfather to see him before the grandfather went to China for a visit.

But Thach told reporters that primarily he was upset with his wife about not watching the boy closely enough and wanted to teach her a lesson.

Grace Thach told reporters the day the boy was returned that “I forgive my husband; I still love him, love my family, love my child. I feel sorry to many people.”