48 hours to capture the man who used a fake grenade to rob a bank in Nghe An

Using fake grenade to rob

At around 4:30 p.m. on February 1, 2024, Cua Lo Town Police received a report from bank officials and local residents about a robbery that occurred in Thu Thuy Ward (Cua Lo Town). According to initial information, the robbery occurred at the Transaction Office of the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade - VietinBank, Cua Lo Branch.

While the transaction office was still operating, a masked male subject, wearing a gray jacket, helmet, boldly rushed into the transaction office on a motorbike, using weapons including a sharp knife and an object suspected to be a grenade to threaten and intimidate the staff in order to rob money. After robbing a large amount of money, the subject quickly fled towards Vinh city.

Immediately after receiving the report, the leaders of Nghe An Provincial Police directed the establishment of a special project, mobilized all forces to investigate, assigned a Deputy Director of the Provincial Police to be the Head of the special project to directly direct Vinh City Police, Criminal Police Department, Cua Lo Town Police, Nghi Loc District Police, related professional units and coordinated with the professional departments of the Ministry of Public Security to comprehensively deploy professional measures, determined to solve the case as soon as possible.

The investigation process encountered many difficulties. The subject was very sophisticated and cunning. During the escape, he often changed vehicles, clothes, covered his face, and moved in a zigzag manner through the routes to deal with the authorities.

After only 48 hours, at 4:30 p.m. on February 3, 2024, at Km 454+300, National Highway 1A in Nghi Lien commune (Vinh city), the joint forces blocked and arrested the suspect along with evidence related to the case including 1 Yamaha Sirius motorbike and 1 set of clothes the suspect was wearing at the time of the crime and some other evidence.

Through verification, the main suspect who committed the robbery was Dinh Khuong Linh (born in 1986), residing in Nghi Lien commune, Vinh city. With a stubborn nature and 2 previous convictions, the suspect refused to admit his guilt, but with his strong will, determination, sharp professional measures and undeniable evidence and documents, at 5:30 a.m. on February 4, 2024, Dinh Khuong Linh had to bow his head and admit his guilt.

When asked about the murder weapon, the suspect admitted that because he was a bonsai man, he always kept it in the trunk for work. As for the fake grenade and fake license plate, Linh admitted that he had picked them up on the side of the road and kept them in the trunk as toys. Before committing the robbery, Linh removed the license plate and replaced it with a fake one to avoid detection by the authorities.

Robbing a bank to… play games

Immediately after completing the file, on February 17, 2024, the Investigation Police Agency of Cua Lo Town Police initiated a case, prosecuted the accused, and detained Dinh Khuong Linh for the crime of "Robbery". These decisions were approved by the People's Procuracy at the same level. Dinh Khuong Linh was prosecuted under Clause 2, Article 168 of the Penal Code, with a penalty of 7 to 15 years in prison.

Through investigation from some related people as well as security camera recordings, it is shown that as soon as he entered the central location of the transaction office, Linh shouted "robbery", at the same time threw a black plastic bag into the area where bank employees were working, pulled out a knife with his right hand and shouted "put the money in quickly, robbery, put the money in quickly".

Not only that, with the fake grenade, Linh threatened to remove the pin, causing the bank employee and customer to run away. After that, Linh tried to threaten the male bank employee to take money from the drawer and put it in his pocket, then sat down, took the money out of the pocket, and put some trash in it.

Linh kept holding up the grenade to urge the male employee. Seeing the bulging plastic bag, Linh said "it's not money, don't trick me". The man climbed onto the table, jumped onto the counter, asked the male employee to stand away, took the money from the floor, put it in the bag and escaped outside.

Through investigation, the bank confirmed that the amount of money Linh robbed from the counter was 52 million VND. However, while running away, Linh dropped 6 million VND in front of the transaction office.

At the Police Investigation Agency, Dinh Khuong Linh admitted that his addiction to games and unstable job were the reasons for the bank robbery. Linh asked someone to transfer part of the stolen money into his account to pay for online games and the rest to pay off debts and spend.

Sentencing on Family Day

The first instance trial of Dinh Khuong Linh was opened by the People's Court of Cua Lo town on June 28, 2024. Defendant Linh was prosecuted for the crime of "Robbery".

At the trial, defendant Dinh Khuong Linh admitted to all the crimes as charged in the indictment. The defendant confessed that he drove his motorbike to Cua Lo with the purpose of "visiting" bonsai trees, but when he passed the bank branch in Thu Thuy ward, he saw that there were no people there, so he had the idea of ​​robbing property to get money to spend and play games. Linh also confessed that before committing the robbery, he had also pawned his wife's motorbike to play games. During his life, Linh also admitted that he had almost no money to support his wife in raising children. However, after Linh was arrested, his wife and family compensated the bank 6.3 million VND.

It is worth mentioning that exactly 20 years ago, on June 28, 2004, this subject also stood before the court to receive a 3-month prison sentence for the crime of "Abuse of trust to appropriate property". Previously, on September 30, 2003, Linh was sentenced by the Nghi Loc District People's Court to 24 months of non-custodial reform for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

After serving his sentence for the two crimes mentioned above, on August 27, 2004, Dinh Khuong Linh was given a warning by Nghi Loc District Police for "Intentionally damaging property".

On Vietnamese Family Day, Dinh Khuong Linh had to stand before the court to receive his second sentence in solitude. Ms. T. (the defendant's wife) was working far away to support her family and could not attend the trial. This poor woman is a girl from the West, Linh's wife accepted to leave her family to follow her husband to a "foreign land", but Linh's careless and debauched habits left her and her children without a place to rely on.

Having the last word, defendant Linh expressed remorse and hoped for a lighter sentence so he could soon return to his family and fulfill his responsibilities as a husband and father once again...

The presiding judge said that the defendant had been punished many times for property infringement but did not repent and continued to commit crimes. The defendant's crimes were extremely serious, negatively affecting the security, order and safety of society.

Considering the case in its entirety, the People's Court of Cua Lo Town sentenced Dinh Khuong Linh to 8 years in prison, higher than the sentence of 7 years to 7 years and 6 months in prison proposed by the representative of the People's Procuracy of Cua Lo Town who held the right to prosecute at the trial. At the same time, he must compensate the bank with the remaining amount of 39.6 million VND.