Robbers grab $188,000 on HCMC street in broad daylight

An audacious heist in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday morning, October 2, 2006 saw a gang make away with VND3 billion (US$188,000) in broad daylight 

The gang rammed a motorbike into the back of a car in which Le Thi Hong Trang, 27, an accountant at the Vietnam-US Society English Training Center (VUS), was carrying cash for paying into a bank. 

The car driver Trung Nghia stepped out to inspect the ‘accident’. As he was arguing with the motorbike rider, at least five people emerged from the street and one of them pointed a knife at Nghia and forced him to get into the car. 

All this happened at around 10:00 am at the junction of Ba Huyen Thanh Quan and Ngo Thoi Nhiem streets in District 3. 

Three of the men forced Nghia to drive past Saigon Port and turn into a small deserted lane along the Saigon river in district 2’s Thao Dien ward. 

They forced him to stop, grabbed the money from Trang, tied the two up and gagged their mouths, and coolly left on motorbikes. 

Passers-by discovered the two victims in the car only at 4:00pm following which a police complaint was made. 

The police said the accountant had been taking the money from VUS’s head office in district 4 to Vietcombank in District 3. 

They are investigating. 

(Thanh Nien News, October 4, 2006)