Two men held for snatching foreigner’s handbag in Hanoi

After a week of investigation, police in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi arrested Nguyen Xuan Hoa, 28, and Tran Huu Le, 27, both local residents, on charges of “property robbery by snatching” pursuant to Article 136 of the Penal Code.

The police also detained Phung Quoc Huy, 27, also of Hanoi, on charges of “harboring or consuming property acquired through the commission of crime by other persons” under Article 250 of the Code.

The victim in the case is Noh Hye Yuong, a 41-year-old woman with South Korean nationality, who reported the robbery to police on December 28.

According to the case file, at 1:30 pm that day, Hoa rode a motorbike carrying Le around My Dinh 1 Ward, Nam Tu Liem District, to look for “prey”.

When they were driving down Do Dinh Thien Street, they saw Noh Hye Yuong standing on the roadside buying fruit.

They approached her, snatched a handbag from her arms and sped away from the scene.

The woman then reported the robbery to local police, saying that her handbag contained a Samsung Galaxy Note 3, as well as VND8 million (US$374) and $280 in cash.

The victim also told the police that the snatchers had ridden a Wave-branded red motorbike. She also provided the police with identification characteristics of the snatchers.

Police then launched an investigation and they finally identified Hoa and Le as the culprits and arrested them on Thursday.

The two pleaded guilty to snatching and confessed that they are jobless and had successfully carried out nine other street robberies before snatching the handbag from Noh Hye Yuong.

Hoa said he had given the woman’s cell phone to Huy to sell. Huy then sold it for VND6.9 million ($323) and gave Hoa VND4.8 million ($224) of the revenue.

Hoa and Le told police they had spent all the money gained from the theft on their personal needs.