Stealing nearly 600 taels of gold by faking a transaction, two thieves escaped across the border and were caught in Laos.

Dastardly robberies at gold shops

Eight years ago, in Nghe An, there were a number of gold thefts with extremely daring and daring methods and tricks. These thefts took place in broad daylight with the value of lost assets reaching billions of dong, causing panic and anxiety among gold shop owners and residents.

On June 4, 2017, a thief broke into the QD gold shop in Nghi Phuong commune, Nghi Loc district (now Than Linh commune) and stole a tray containing 9999 gold rings. According to the gold shop owner, at that time, the shop's staff went inside so there was no one watching the counter. Through checking the camera, a subject wearing a helmet and a mask entered and "stole" the above gold.

About a month later, at noon on July 7, a similar theft occurred at a gold shop in Nghi Trung commune, Nghi Loc district (now Nghi Loc commune). Like the previous theft, the thief was a subject wearing a sun-protective shirt, a helmet, and a mask. The subject took advantage of the gold shop's negligence, with no one watching, to steal a tray containing many gold necklaces.

Given the seriousness of the case, the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Police has urgently established a special project to fight and clarify this gang of thieves. However, it is not easy when there is very little information about the case. What the camera recorded was only a tall, thin man wearing a sun jacket, a helmet and a mask covering almost his entire face. The gold thefts took place when there were no people around so no one could identify the subject. At the scene, there were no traces of the thief.

However, after basing on the camera images extracted at the 2 gold shops and the method and tricks of the thieves, the investigation team determined that the subjects were all the same person. The reckless actions of the subjects in the thefts showed that they had carefully researched, explored, and studied the gold shops and planned in a detailed and professional manner.

While the gold thefts that caused public panic had not yet found the perpetrator, on August 6, 2018, another gold theft occurred at Phuong Nhan gold shop in Cong Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district (now Van Tu commune). According to the shop owner's statement, at about 10 o'clock, the family was preparing lunch inside when a young man entered the shop. When the shop owner went out, this person took off the ring he was wearing on his hand to sell. After completing the ring transaction, the shop owner went into the house and a while later discovered that many rings and gold necklaces had "disappeared".

From the camera footage, it can be seen that right after the store owner went inside, the young man returned, used a plastic chair, stood up, and reached to steal the gold.

Three cases of gold theft with property value up to billions of dong caused a stir in public opinion, causing panic among the masses, making the Task Force feel like it was sitting on a pile of fire. Therefore, finding the subject as soon as possible became the highest determination of the detectives.

"Thieves" caught in Laos

Among dozens of suspects, the Task Force found Nguyen Trung Thanh (born in 1978), residing in Hung Linh commune, Hung Nguyen district (now Hung Nguyen Nam commune). This subject had 4 previous convictions for theft, robbery and fraud. Coincidentally, after the gold theft in Yen Thanh district, this subject suddenly disappeared in the area.

Thanh's sudden disappearance from the locality left the Task Force with great suspicion, but at the same time caused the task force to fall into a deadlock. While the Task Force was focusing on the investigation, the Criminal Police Department received information from the Ministry of Public Security's representative office in Laos providing information about two subjects who committed the theft at a gold shop in Luang Prabang province (Laos) on September 26, 2018. They were Nguyen Trung Thanh and Nguyen Van Lam (born in 1990, residing in Quynh Lam commune, Quynh Luu district (now Quynh Son commune).

These subjects confessed to having committed 4 thefts in Vietnam before going to Laos. Therefore, the Nghe An Provincial Police Investigation Agency coordinated with Lao authorities to investigate and clarify. During the investigation, the police determined that these two subjects had stolen 592 taels of gold from 3 gold shops (the value of gold at the time of theft was more than 2.1 billion VND).

In addition, these two subjects also committed a theft of money from a post office employee. Thanh's method was to go to the post office and pretend to buy stamps to investigate. After seeing a female post office employee with a bag suspected to contain money, Thanh took advantage of the moment when she went out to steal the bag containing 82 million VND.

For their crimes in Laos, Nguyen Trung Thanh and Nguyen Van Lam were each sentenced to 5 years in prison for theft. In early 2025, Thanh completed his entire sentence and was released. After returning to Vietnam, on January 10, 2025, Nguyen Trung Thanh surrendered to Nghe An Police. As for Nguyen Van Lam, he has not yet completed his civil sentence and fined, so he has not been released yet.

Day of Atonement

Recently, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened the first instance trial of two defendants Nguyen Trung Thanh and Nguyen Van Lam for the crime of property theft. Because Lam has not yet been released by the neighboring country, the panel of judges decided to try this defendant in absentia.

At the witness stand, defendant Thanh admitted that he and defendant Lam had committed the act of stealing gold and money. Thanh said he had known his accomplices since 2008 in Malaysia. After returning to Vietnam, because they did not have a stable job but were passionate about gambling and drug addiction, they planned to steal property.

After reaching an agreement, Thanh and Lam repeatedly surveyed, monitored, and studied the operating rules of several gold shops in the area. Then, taking advantage of the negligence of the gold shops, the two subjects committed many robberies.

During the “practice”, Thanh took on the main task, directly entering the gold shop to investigate and take action. Meanwhile, Lam was responsible for driving and taking his accomplices. While his accomplices entered the shop, Lam stayed outside to keep watch and started the motorbike ready to take Thanh away.

Defendant Thanh expressed remorse for his crime. He stated that after being released from Laos, he turned himself in to the police, hoping to receive leniency from the law. Afterwards, he persuaded his wife to compensate the victims on his behalf.

Although defendant Lam was tried in absentia, his father also attended the trial that day. The man explained that his difficult circumstances prevented him from helping his son to remedy the consequences in Laos. Therefore, Lam has not been released to this day.

Talking about his erring son, he said that since Lam grew up and went out to work, he had never sent any gifts or money home to his family. On the contrary, Lam had committed many thefts. He knew that the consequences his son had caused to the victims were great, but he said that because of his difficult circumstances and illness, he could not pay the debts for the victims on his behalf.

The panel of judges determined that the defendants’ actions violated the law and caused panic among the people, so they needed to be severely punished. After considering the role of each defendant in the case, the court sentenced Nguyen Trung Thanh to 14 years in prison and Nguyen Van Lam to 15 years in prison. Regarding the civil case, the court ordered the two defendants to compensate the victims.

The severe sentence for Thanh and Lam is not only the price for their crimes, but also a warning to those who disregard the law, regardless of the consequences.