The mystery of night frog hunting trips
(Baonghean.vn) - At night, Nguyen Van Chuong took his frog fishing gear and left home. Few people know that the "results" of his frog hunting nights were valuable items that this man had broken into private homes and shops in the area to steal.
The first instance trial of Nguyen Van Chuong (born in 1989, residing in Dien Lam commune, Dien Chau district) took place quickly. Chuong was brought to trial by the Provincial People's Court for the crime of "Theft of property". Also brought to trial in this case was Pham Hong Thao (born in 1970, residing in Dien Lam commune), prosecuted for the crimes of "Receiving property obtained by crime" and "Illegal possession of explosives".
There is a folk saying that “stealing makes you a habitual thief”, which is probably true for Chuong because this is the second time Chuong has had to “appear in court” for this crime. Previously, at the end of 2016, Chuong was sentenced by the People’s Court of Dien Chau district to 15 months in prison but given a suspended sentence, with a 30-month probation for the crime of theft of property.
According to the indictment, Nguyen Van Chuong works in the fields, but has a side job of catching frogs to sell. On the evening of April 25, 2023, as usual, Chuong brought his tools to the field in Quynh Chau commune (Quynh Luu district) to catch frogs. When passing by the phone store of Mr. D.VL in hamlet 6, Quynh Chau commune, he saw the door locked and no one was watching, so his "professionalism" arose, Chuong planned to break in to steal property.
He still went to look for frogs as usual but in his head he planned to steal the property of the phone store owner. At about 1:00 a.m. on April 26, 2023, when the village was asleep, the last house in the village had turned off the electric light, Chuong quickly moved from the field to Mr. L's store.
He stopped the car, turned off the engine at a distance from the store, and approached with his tools. While listening, guessing that the neighbors were fast asleep, Chuong used a pry bar to break open the back door of the store to break in. Discovering that there was a security camera in the store, Chuong used a piece of electrical wire to plug into the outlet, causing a short circuit, disabling the camera.
In this case, Chuong stole 14 new phones and 8 used phones. Chuong took 1 genuine phone to use, the rest he sold to Pham Hong Thao. Thao knew that these were stolen properties but still bought them to sell for profit.
Authorities also clarified that from December 2022 to July 2022, Chuong also committed 4 acts of property theft. With a "passion" for stealing, he took anything, as long as he could sell it for money, from MSG bags, cooking oil bottles; water pumps, concrete mixers... of the people. The stolen goods, Chuong sold to Thao for prices ranging from 300,000 VND to 500,000 VND.
On July 29, 2023, Nguyen Van Chuong was arrested. Based on Chuong's testimony, the police executed a search warrant at Thao's residence and seized some of Thao's unsold assets that she had purchased from Chuong. At Thao's house, the police also seized 1.7 kg of explosives. Thao said that a relative gave her the explosives.
Authorities valued the assets that Chuong stole between December 2022 and July 2023 at VND109 million. Thao consumed assets worth more than VND94 million.
At the trial, Nguyen Van Chuong admitted to committing the crime as charged in the indictment. The defendant said that due to poverty, he acted recklessly and hoped to receive leniency from the law.
The representative of the Procuracy determined that Nguyen Van Chuong's criminal act violated other people's property. The defendant committed the crime many times, twice with property value of over 2 million VND... The defendant had been sentenced for theft but still reoffended, so it was necessary to impose a severe penalty, with enough deterrence for the defendant as well as general prevention for the crime of property theft.
Considering the case as a whole, the first instance trial panel sentenced Nguyen Van Chuong to 3 years in prison for “Theft of property”; sentenced Pham Hong Thao to 2 years in prison for “Receiving property obtained through criminal acts” and 1 year for “Illegal possession of explosives”. In total, Pham Hong Thao must serve a 3-year prison sentence.