PHUKET — After traveling nearly 14,000 kilometers for a ten-day vacation with his wife, U.S. tourist Malcolm Worthington, 56, of eastern Kansas, instead spent the better part of a day silently monitoring a municipal worker operate a Caterpillar 446F backhoe-loader while clearing boat wreckage from Chalong Bay. Worthington, who owns a heavy equipment repair business back home, reportedly became transfixed upon spotting the machine and its operator, Kritsada Saelim, 49, methodically moving debris from the sand, prompting him to stop walking mid-beach stroll and adopt what witnesses described as a “diagnostic stance.” Despite repeated attempts by his wife, Maria Worthington, 53, to redirect his attention toward snorkeling, lunch reservations, or their marriage, Malcolm insisted on remaining, occasionally nodding approvingly as the bucket was lowered at what he described as “the same angle we’d use back home.” “You see how he feathers the controls there?” Malcolm said to no one in particular. “That’s not something you can teach.” While Maria eventually departed to attend a southern Thai cooking class and later a massage, Malcolm remained on-site, growing increasingly concerned about a faint tapping noise he claimed to hear during lift cycles, speculating it could indicate early-stage cavitation or a neglected hydraulic filter. At press time, Malcolm was last seen attempting to gain access to the equipment depot so he could search for the vehicle service records, noting that “you can tell a lot about a man by his grease intervals.”
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