'Lure' online seller to deserted place to rob 17 phones

Pretending to be friends on social networks, they ordered 17 smartphones from an online seller. Then, they took the victims to a deserted place to rob them...

The Investigation Police Agency of Thuan An Town (Binh Duong) said that they had arrested a group of suspects including Phan Thanh Phong (21 years old, residing in Quang Nam), Trieu Tuoc Toi (20 years old, residing in An Giang), Phan Huu Duc (24 years old, residing in Can Tho City), Le Thanh Phuong (24 years old) and Le Hoang (18 years old, all residing in An Giang) to investigate and clarify the act of robbery.

The subjects were arrested.

According to initial investigation, Phong knew Mr. L.D. H. (born in 1995, residing in Long An) who specialized in selling products online, mainly smartphones.

After a period of making friends on social networks, Phong ordered 17 smartphones from Mr. H., including 4 iPhones, 3 Samsung S7 phones and 7 Note 5 phones. Knowing that these were hand-carried goods, floating on the market and the victim was afraid of delivering during the day, Phong made an appointment to buy the goods and receive the money in the evening.

At around 11pm on May 5, Phong asked Mr. H. to come to the coffee shop at kilometer 10, in Binh Giao quarter, Thuan Giao ward (Thuan An town) to hand over the phones. At this place, Mr. H. did not see Phong, but immediately four strange young men appeared, used knives to control him and forced him to hand over the bag containing 17 phones, then escaped in the middle of the night. After the robbers left, Mr. H. went to report to the police.

Evidence of the case

From information about the robbers' characteristics, the detectives quickly narrowed down the suspects and identified Phong as the main suspect involved in the case. After many hours of searching nearby boarding houses, the detectives arrested the suspects. The seized evidence included 17 cell phones, 2 sharp knives used as weapons...

Initially, the suspects confessed that they pretended to buy a phone online, then took the victim to a deserted area to commit the crime.

According to CAND