Man complains foreigner stole US$187,000 worth gold from his car
The Ho Chi Minh City police are investigating a complaint from a man that a foreigner stole more than 2.2 kg of gold he had kept in a car when he was changing a flat tire.
The 46-year-old man, identified only as T, said it happened at around 9 p.m. on April 5 when he was driving on Street 1011 in District 8 with his 12-year-old son.
He pulled over to change a tire when a foreign man approached and talked to his son who was standing on the sidewalk.
The foreigner later got on another man’s motorbike and left.
T checked the car and found his bag with 60 taels (1 tael = 37.5 gm) of gold worth VND2 billion (US$187,000) missing.
Street 1011 has several government offices, including the District 8 People’s Committee. The district police station, where T quickly filed a complaint, is just around the corner.
If the foreigner indeed stole the gold, the case would be similar to a crime for which in 2010 the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court handed jail terms of seven to nine years to six Indonesian men for robbery.
The gang would follow people coming out of banks and throw nails hidden in cigarette packs in their path to cause a flat tire.
In this manner they stole US$23,000 from Cho Pao Liang when the Chinese man withdrew money at a bank on Ton Duc Thang Street.
There have been numerous cases of criminals staging traffic accidents to steal money from motorbike riders.
