HCMC – Due to her mounting debts, Phung Thi Thang, a 24-year-old woman, robbed a Techcombank branch in HCMC’s Tan Phu District on October 10 but was caught by the police and detained.
On the same day, the resident of the northern province of Bac Giang, who was wearing a cap, a long-sleeved shirt and a face mask, carrying a bag containing five mini gas bottles disguised as bombs, an LED light string, a petroleum bottle and a lighter, entered the bank on Truong Vinh Ky Street.
After threatening the bank staff with her “weapons” and asking them to put money into her bag, she quickly got onto a taxi and took off with the stolen VND2.1 billion, according to local news reports.
Three hours later, the HCMC police arrested her at a supermarket in Tan Binh District.
On her way out, she entered a commercial center in Tan Phu District to change her clothes to prevent the police from identifying her.
At the police station, Thang admitted to having planned to rob the bank as she had no money to pay her debts. The police are continuing to investigate the case.
