Bank robbery suspect has competed on game shows many times
Phung Thi Thang, 24 years old, from Bac Giang, who has participated in many comedy game shows on television, said she needed money to pay off debts so she robbed a bank.
On the morning of October 11, Thang was investigated by Ho Chi Minh City Police for his behavior.Robberyand other criminal signs.
Yesterday afternoon, after robbing 2.1 billion VND from Techcombank on Truong Vinh Ky Street, Tan Phu District, Thang escaped from the scene by taxi. She went to many shopping centers in Tan Phu and Tan Binh Districts, changed clothes, hats and other accessories, suitcases... to disguise and erase traces, avoiding police pursuit.
However, after 3 hours of committing the crime, Thang was arrested by Ho Chi Minh City Police in coordination with the Criminal Police Department (C02, Ministry of Public Security).
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| Thang when he was captured by the detectives. Photo: Van Vu |
According to initial investigation, Thang created a stage name and participated in TV shows such as Comedy Challenge season 6.
Thang's nickname is Kang Pi. She has a Facebook page with nearly 9,000 followers and a YouTube channel with 4,800 subscribers.
Thang's channel collects cover videos of songs in Vietnamese, English and Korean.
Not only appearing in the show Comedy Challenge, Thang also participated in the final round of the show Z-POP Dream VietNam 2019 with a performance of the songdrunk
Spent a lot of money but failed, recently owed a lot of money, had no money to pay, Thang planned to rob a bank.
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| Phung Thi Thang at the game show Comedy Challenge. Source: Zing.vn |
At noon on October 10, Thang wore a baseball cap, mask, sunglasses, long-sleeved shirt, and backpack and walked to a bank branch on Truong Vinh Ky Street, Tan Phu District. Stopped by security because the bank was closed, she asked to go inside to "retrieve something she had forgotten".
Thang went straight to the counter where two female employees were cleaning up, preparing to close. She placed her open bag, revealing many mini gas tanks, gasoline bottles, flashing lights... saying "this is a bomb", asking the employees tobank"walked out into the middle of the room". Then, Thang took a bottle of gasoline and a blowtorch and threatened to "explode" it, forcing the bank employee to put 2.1 billion VND in his pocket.
Carrying the bag of money outside, Thang used a rope to tie the bank door and lock everyone inside. She jumped into a taxi and escaped towards Go Dau street.
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| Bank robbery suspect. Image cut from security camera. |
Leaders of Ho Chi Minh City Police and the Criminal Police Department arrived at the scene shortly after. Nearly a hundred police officers blocked off the area around the bank branch.
After 3 hours of pursuit, police caught Thang at a shopping mall.