Ho Chi Minh City Criminal Police have urgently arrested 3 youths for snatching a table used for ghost worship offerings at a PNJ store and a resident’s house.
The Ho Chi Minh City Criminal Police Department announced that they have urgently arrested Mai Anh Kiet (18 years old), Nguyen Tuan Hung (17 years old, both residing in Bay Hien ward), and Ha Kim Bao (17 years old, residing in Tan Hoa ward) for investigation of property snatching.
Regarding the case, Ho Chi Minh City Police are continuing to consolidate documents to handle T.Q.D. (15 years old).
Previously, at 4 PM on September 6, store employees at 142 Au Co, Tan Hoa ward used a metal (stainless steel) table for ghost worship offerings. The table was arranged with fruits, candies, betel leaves and areca nuts, tea, sticky rice, porridge, sugarcane, toads, peanuts, boiled chicken, and 200,000 VND in cash.
About 3 minutes later, while employee M. had just finished lighting incense, a group of youths riding a motorcycle on Au Co street headed toward the store.
Among them, 2 young men riding together on a motorcycle drove onto the sidewalk, approached the offering table, and the person sitting behind jumped off the bike, violently snatching the table causing the offerings to scatter on the road.
After snatching the stainless steel table, the young man got on the bike and his accomplice accelerated to escape toward the Au Co – Lac Long Quan intersection.
The stolen property was determined to be the stainless steel table, which was company property purchased when the store opened (about 7-8 years ago), therefore the table has now been fully depreciated and there are no longer any invoices or documents recording the purchase price.
As for the 200,000 VND cash, it was recovered by store employees, and the other offerings were not of high value. Ms. M. also did not request any action regarding the behavior of the subjects.
Tan Hoa Ward Police coordinated with Ho Chi Minh City Criminal Police Department to investigate and arrest the group including Mai Anh Kiet, Nguyen Tuan Hung, Ha Kim Bao and T.Q.D. related to the above incident.
During questioning with police, the youth group admitted that earlier at 2 PM the same day, the whole group gathered at alley 127 Ni Su Huynh Lien and planned to go snatch offerings from houses conducting ghost worship.
Afterwards, 4 youths rode on 2 motorcycles, moving through many routes in the former District 11 area looking for offerings to snatch. When they reached Le Dai Hanh street (near Van Phuoc Pagoda), they encountered another group of about 10 youths on 5 motorcycles also going to snatch offerings.
At the pagoda, Bao’s group saw the other group snatch a stainless steel offering table and escape, while Bao’s group only snatched candies and fruits, then joined the remaining group. While traveling, Bao’s group discussed snatching stainless steel tables to sell for spending money.
When they arrived in front of the PNJ store, Hung jumped off the bike and snatched the ghost worship offering table as described above, then the whole group fled to hide the table near the neighborhood post in neighborhood 5, Bay Hien ward and dispersed.
At around 6:30 PM on September 7, Bao alone was walking on the street when he snatched 1 stainless steel offering table in front of house number 181/14 Hong Lac, Bay Hien ward.</
