Searching for the subject who swindled 840 lottery tickets from a disabled woman
Authorities are investigating a case in which a disabled woman was tricked into buying 840 new lottery tickets, worth VND8.4 million, with old ones.
On September 24, Bien Hoa City Police, Dong Nai Province, said that the unit is coordinating with relevant agencies to investigate a suspect who swindled 840 lottery tickets from a disabled woman in the city.
The victim of the lottery ticket scam was Ms. Le Thi Thuan (46 years old, from Khanh Hoa, temporarily residing in Bien Hoa city, Dong Nai province). Ms. Thuan is disabled, has no arms, no legs, is illiterate and makes a living selling lottery tickets on the sidewalk of Duong Tu Giang street, near Lac Cuong intersection (Ward 2, Tan Tien ward, Bien Hoa city).
According to Ms. Thuan, at around 6:00 a.m. on September 24, she used a wheelchair to go to the sidewalk of Duong Tu Giang to sell lottery tickets as usual. When she arrived, a man in his 50s riding a red motorbike and wearing a brown jacket stopped and asked to buy lottery tickets.
Because she had just arrived at the point of sale, Ms. Thuan had not yet had time to prepare the lottery tickets, so the stack of 840 tickets was still in her bag. Ms. Thuan said that the man opened the bag to take out the lottery tickets himself. After a while of choosing, the man bought 8 tickets and gave her 200,000 VND.
While Mrs. Thuan was preparing the change to return, the man swapped another stack of lottery tickets (same Tien Giang lottery but different date) into Mrs. Thuan's basket and then sped away.
Then, Ms. Thuan took the lottery tickets out of the basket and spread them on the table to sell, but because she was illiterate, she did not notice. It was only when a customer came to buy that she discovered that the entire stack of lottery tickets were old numbers (April 30, 2023).
Upon receiving the report, Tan Tien Ward Police arrived at the scene to record the incident and invited Ms. Thuan to the headquarters to take a statement to investigate the incident.
Ms. Thuan said she got the lottery tickets from the agent on the afternoon of September 23, but because it was raining at the time, she could not sell them. The lottery tickets still had 840 intact tickets, with a total value of 8.4 million VND.
After the incident was posted on social media, many people learned about Ms. Thuan's difficult situation and proactively donated money to help Ms. Thuan pay the principal to the dealer.
The incident is under investigation.