License plate number helps to find two daring gold shop robbers

During the investigation, investigators determined that the robbers' car had license plate 83P1.50069, but when they escaped, it had license plate 59N1.09570.

From Ho Chi Minh City, Phan Van Be (residing in An Dien commune, Thanh Phu district, Ben Tre) and Nguyen Huu Thuan (residing in Dong Phu commune, Long Ho district, Vinh Long) invited each other to Long An to rob property. Their ferocity made people panic.

Violent robbery

At about 2:30 p.m. on June 15, 2017, Ms. Le Thi Van (60 years old), owner of Kim Ngoc M shop on National Highway 1, Nhon Cau quarter, Tan Khanh ward, Tan An city, Long An, saw two young men riding a motorbike, their faces covered, stopping on the side of National Highway 1 in front of the shop to smoke. A few minutes later, when Ms. Van was not paying attention, they entered the shop. One of them used pepper spray to continuously attack, while the other pulled out a machete and rushed to slash Ms. Van. Too surprised, Ms. Van did not have time to call for help, reflexively raised her arm to block, then tried to run to the back of the house. The robber used a machete to smash the gold display case, took nearly 15 gold bars of jewelry, including rings, bracelets, necklaces, and escaped on a motorbike.

Two suspects in the gold shop robbery.

Upon receiving the report, the investigation team led by Major Nguyen Thanh Cao, Team Leader of Team 3, Criminal Police Department, Long An Provincial Police, immediately arrived at the scene. According to initial records, two glass cabinets displaying gold were both broken by the subject using sharp objects. At the scene, there were only fingerprints of Ms. Le Thi Van and a customer who was in the store when the incident occurred. Ms. Van and the customer were so panicked that they only remembered that there were 2 perpetrators, wearing long-sleeved clothes, helmets, and masks. The store's camera quality was too poor to identify the subjects.

Some locals said that at the time of the robbery, there were two men wearing helmets, one wearing a red, black, and white plaid long-sleeved shirt; blue jeans, and a blue mask; the other wearing a blue jacket with black shoulders and bottom, a light yellow long-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, a helmet, a gray-blue backpack, and a black, white-striped mask. When the incident happened, hearing the screams from the victim's house, many locals ran to the scene, including a motorbike taxi driver who chased after the perpetrators but was too late.

PC45 Department coordinated with Tan An City Police to extract the security camera system along the roads in Tan An City, discovered the suspect's vehicle after committing the crime headed towards Tien Giang and Ben Tre. The image of the suspect with external identification was similar to the information received from the public. It was thought that the case had been solved, but when passing Rach Mieu Bridge, Ben Tre Province, the suspect was lost. However, the investigators determined that the suspect's vehicle had the license plate 83P1.50069, but when it escaped, it had the license plate 59N1.09570.

After nearly 30 days of investigation, verifying sources of information, and tracing the origin of the motorbike, the detectives received information from Ben Tre Provincial Police: Phan Van Be (born in 1986, living in Ben Tre province) was the subject using this motorbike, had just served a prison sentence for property theft, had unclear assets because he had just been released from prison, was unemployed but had money to open a welding shop.

After just over 3 days of monitoring Be, the detectives reported that on July 15, he would ride the same motorbike he used to commit the crime to Ho Chi Minh City to buy tools to open a welding shop. To ensure the element of surprise and not alert other suspects in the case, the investigators determined that the suspect must be arrested on his way from Ben Tre to Ho Chi Minh City and the location of the arrest was National Highway 1, through Long An province.

On the other hand, considering that Phan Van Be went to Ho Chi Minh City to buy supplies to open a welding shop, he would have to bring money and assets, and it is not impossible to take evidence of the case (the stolen gold) to sell, so the plan was to not let the subject dispose of the evidence.

"Old habits die hard"

When Pham Van Be returned to Long An, he was arrested. “Although he had the motorbike as evidence, he did not confess to the crime, saying that he had just bought the motorbike so he did not know. When he was searched, he found a necklace in his jeans pocket with the logo of Kim Ngoc M gold shop,” Major Nguyen Thanh Cao recounted.

Faced with solid evidence, on the morning of July 16, Phan Van Be admitted his guilt. He confessed that he committed the crime with Nguyen Huu Thuan, residing in Long Ho district, Vinh Long province.

“Thuan had a criminal record, was a heavy drug addict, was a prominent figure in the local underworld, and had just been released from prison. The two men served time together at Phuoc Hoa Prison, Tien Giang Province, for theft. After being released from prison, Be worked as a mechanic in Binh Duong and Ho Chi Minh City; Thuan returned to his hometown to work as a construction worker and was in regular contact with Be by phone.

On June 5, Be quit his job and stayed in Ho Chi Minh City to have fun. Because he had no money to spend, he came up with the idea of ​​robbing property and invited Nguyen Huu Thuan to go with him. Having two machetes, Thuan borrowed a can of pepper spray from his friend. At around 5:00 p.m. on June 12, Be rode a red and black Wave RSX motorbike with license plate 83P1-50069 to pick Thuan up to go to Ho Chi Minh City. After a day of searching, Be and Thuan agreed to rob the Kim Ngoc M. gold shop. After learning about the operation of this gold shop, they bought a fake license plate, two pairs of gloves and two masks.

At around 2:00 p.m. on June 15, they decided to carry out their act. After robbing the property, on the way to escape, Be entered the Park in Ward 3, Tan An City, attached a real license plate to the car, left the fake license plate, mask, gloves in the pond in the park, then both followed Highway 827A through Cho Gao, Tien Giang to Ben Tre. They divided the stolen gold equally and returned to their hometown.

Through the work of grasping the situation and capturing the subject, on July 20, it was discovered that Thuan was working for a barge mining sand on the Hau River in Can Tho. The detectives stayed up all night, checking more than 80 barges on the Hau River section through Can Tho City to find the subject Thuan.

At around 8am on July 21, the reconnaissance force discovered the subject on a barge in the middle of the Hau River and immediately arrested him. At the investigation agency, Thuan bowed his head and confessed his crime./.

According to VOV