Police nick man who snatched handbag from foreigner

Police in Nguyen Cu Trinh Ward in District 1 on April 12 said they were preparing to hand over Nguyen Thanh Tai to the district police for investigation on charges of “property robbery by snatching.”  

The victim is a Chinese woman who was walking along with her compatriot on a street on April 11. 

At 8:30 pm that day, a police team was patrolling in the district when they found Tai traveling on a motorbike in a suspicious manner.

The team secretly followed him to Nguyen Cu Trinh Street, where Tai sped up and approached the two foreign women, who were then walking along the roadside with a handbag on the shoulders of one of them. 

Tai immediately snatched the bag from the foreigner and ran away.

The police team then chased the snatcher, who accelerated and darted through many streets.

The team caught up with the man at the intersection of Tran Dinh Xu and Tran Hung Dao streets.

Police then seized him and recovered the bag, which was returned to the victim later.

Besides the iPhone, the bag also contained some important personal papers of the Chinese woman, police said.

Last week, the district police also apprehended two street robbers for snatching a cellphone from an American tourist, following a chase in which police kicked at their motorbike, causing them to fall to the ground. 

The detainees were Tran Phuong Nhat Tam, 35, and Tran Thanh An, 34, who had many previous convictions, police said.