3 arrested for alleged pickpocketing on Saigon’s Tet flower street

By VnExpress   January 26, 2017 | 08:23 pm PT
3 arrested for alleged pickpocketing on Saigon’s Tet flower street
Security guards and snatching victims check CCTV camera on Nguyen Hue Flower Street on Thursday. Photo by VnExpress
Police have received reports of at least six snatching and pickpocketing incidents.

Officers in plain clothes arrested three women suspected of pickpocketing on Nguyen Hue Flower Street in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday night.

They followed the suspicious looking trio before making the arrests, and found a number of iPhones, cash, bags, other people’s ID cards and a South Korean bank card.

The women, aged 27, 35 and 43 years old and all from the central province of Khanh Hoa, were accompanied by two children of 9 and 13 years old who acted as runners for them.

Police are calling for victims to show up to recover their belongings.

3-arrested-for-alleged-pickpocketing-on-saigons-tet-flower-street

The three women arrested for alleged pickpocketing on Nguyen Hue Street on Thursday. Photo by VnExpress/Quoc Thang

Nguyen Hue Flower Street, possibly the most crowded public place in the city during the Lunar New Year, opened on Wednesday night and police had been informed of at least six snatching and pickpocketing cases by the following morning.

One victim was a Vietnamese American who had returned home for the holiday. Another was a man from District 1 whose phone was snatched from his daughter who was taking photos with it.

The flower street is one of the main attractions in the city during the holiday, with many decorations including statues of giant chickens to represent the Year of the Rooster.

The street will close on the night of January 31, the fourth day of the new lunar year. It is being protected by around 400 guards and police officers, and there are also CCTV cameras.

The event draws around one million visitors every year.

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