Gang burglarizing 13 houses arrested in HCMC

Nguyen Quang Hung, 43, Dao Manh Toan, 42, and his wife Pham Thi Bich Ngoc, 36, face "theft" charges.

The crime police in HCMC started to investigate after several burglaries were reported in Thu Duc City, Binh Thanh District and the city's neighboring provinces.

They came to know that a number of villas along the route from the central region to HCMC had also been burgled.

Valuable assets, cash and tools used by a gang to steal from houses in central Vietnam and HCMC. Photo by HCMC police

Investigation found that the group had hired a car and traveled from the central Nghe An Province to the south.

They said the vehicle’s license plate would be fake or covered every time they went to carry out a burglary.

They would first surveil large houses with vulnerable security, make plans to break in and make away valuables.

In all, they burgled nine houses in Da Nang City and nearby provinces. After reaching HCMC, they broke into four houses in Thu Duc and Binh Thanh.

They were caught while carrying out a burglary in Binh Thanh.

The police said all three are drug addicts and "fought fiercely" when accosted.

The total value of the property stolen by the gang is yet to be calculated, but police estimate it in the billions of dong. (VND1 billion = US$40,370).