The culprit who swapped fake gold to steal 280 taels of real gold was the former daughter-in-law.
On March 5th, Lieutenant Colonel Tran Thanh Tam, Deputy Head of the Investigation Agency and Deputy Head of the Criminal Police Department of Dak Lak Provincial Police, announced that the unit had issued a decision to prosecute and temporarily detain Ho Thi Cam Thi (born in 1992, residing in Long Chau village, Dong Xuan commune, Dak Lak province) for the crime of theft.
Previously, on January 26th, the Dong Xuan Commune Police received a crime report from Mr. Dang Quang Ph. (born in 1965, residing in Long Chau village, Dong Xuan commune, Dak Lak province). According to the report, Mr. Ph. and his wife and daughter kept 321.5 taels of gold jewelry in their family's safe. On January 18th, the couple opened the safe and took out 5 rings and 2 bracelets to a local gold shop to have them polished in preparation for giving them as gifts to their son at his upcoming wedding. Surprisingly, upon inspection, the gold shop owner stated that the jewelry was all fake gold.
Suspecting that thieves had broken in and swapped the real gold for fake, Mr. Ph. took all the jewelry in his safe for inspection and determined that only 41.5 taels of gold were real; the remaining 280 taels had been "magically transformed" into fake gold. Due to being busy preparing for his son's wedding, Mr. Ph. only reported the incident to the Dong Xuan Commune Police more than a week later.
Immediately afterwards, the Dong Xuan Commune Police quickly coordinated with the Criminal Police Department of Dak Lak Provincial Police to verify and implement investigative measures to track down the suspect. They identified the person who stole many gold rings and bracelets with a total weight of 280 taels of 9999 gold as Ho Thi Cam Thi - who had been the daughter-in-law of Mr. and Mrs. Ph for more than a decade.
Summoned for intense questioning, Thi confessed that after residing at Mr. Ph.'s house for over four years, she noticed her parents-in-law keeping a large amount of gold in a cabinet before they bought a safe. From mid-January 2017 to December 2020, Thi secretly used the key to open the cabinet and steal the gold 11 times. To avoid detection, Thi used the trick of buying similar fake gold to replace the stolen jewelry in plastic boxes. Besides paying off debts and spending money, Thi once bought an SH Mode scooter and had her father register it under her name. Further investigation revealed that in addition to the gold theft, in September 2024, she also secretly stole 29.5 million VND from her parents-in-law.
It is known that Ho Thi Cam Thi married Dang Thanh Ph. – the son of Mr. Dang Quang Ph. – in 2012, but due to emotional disagreements, the couple separated in mid-to-late 2024, although the divorce was only finalized by a competent court in September 2025. According to current market prices, the stolen gold is worth over 5 billion VND.
