The thief fell asleep in the bank.

On June 24th, the police of Duc Nghia ward, Phan Thiet city (Binh Thuan province) released Nguyen Huu Hai, who broke into a bank with the intention of stealing money but fell asleep and failed to steal, to go home. The police transferred the case file to the Phan Thiet City Police for further investigation and to determine how to handle this unusual theft.

On the afternoon of June 21st, when the Agricultural and Rural Development Bank (Agribank) Phan Thiet branch opened, Hai, posing as a customer, sneaked in and found a dark corner to hide in. At 5 PM that same day, when the bank closed, Hai left his hiding place, went to the second floor to use the restroom, find something to drink, and continued to hide, waiting for nightfall to commit the theft.

At around 9 PM, knowing that the late-working employees had all left, the security guards took their positions outside the gate. Hai went down to the ground floor to the transaction counter intending to open a drawer and steal property. When the alarm system blared loudly, Hai panicked and ran straight up to the second floor and then onto the balcony to find another place to hide.

The bank where Hai broke in to steal and then fell asleep. Photo: PL TP HCM

After his unsuccessful attempt to steal from the teller counter, and waiting for things to quiet down, he decided not to go back to the ground floor but instead wandered around the second-floor counters, searching for and stealing valuables. Due to extreme hunger and exhaustion (he had been hiding in the bank for over 10 hours without eating), Hai fell asleep on the floor.
On the morning of June 22nd, the security guard went to open the door to check and found Hai still asleep, so he apprehended him and handed him over to the police.

At the Duc Nghia Ward Police Station, Hai confessed that he had lost too much money gambling on football matches, which led him to the idea of ​​stealing. Thinking that banks were places with a lot of money, Hai devised a plan to break in.

According to a legal expert, the crime of theft is a material crime, meaning that if the theft has not actually occurred, the crime is not considered to have been committed and therefore will not be prosecuted. Comparing this to the unusual theft case above, it is immediately clear that Hai's actions did not constitute a crime because the theft had not actually taken place; it was only an intention. And since he could not be charged, the police's decision to release him was reasonable.

This legal expert believes it would be difficult to impose administrative penalties on Hai for the theft of property, because he has not caused any damage or moved any of the bank's assets.

"If Hai is to be fined for disturbing public peace, the sanctioning agency must prove that Hai caused loud noises and disturbances between 10 PM and 5 AM. However, according to Hai's confession, he went to the transaction counter at 9 PM, causing the alarm to go off, making it difficult to issue an administrative penalty against him for this behavior," the expert commented.

According to PL HCM -TH