Police in Ba Ria city have arrested an Iranian national for robbing a shop owner in the pretence of money exchange. The man, Mahmood Khadem Poshteh, was arrested on Thursday after robbing the woman and attempted an escape by his waiting car.
According to the victim, Nguyen Thi Nghia, who is an eatery owner in the city, said that Mahmood came to her shop to get himself some snacks and soft drinks. He then gave her two pieces of the VND200,000 and a piece of the VND 100,000 to get a VND500,000.
Photo courtesy : Thannien News
Mahmood demanded that Thi should give her a VND500,000 with a "VN" letter in its serial numbers. The woman then took out her bunch of note worth VND36 million VND to help him with his demand. While she was looking through the notes, Mahmood suddenly grabbed the money away from her, and she tried to get it back, but was knocked down by the man.
Mahmood after knocking the woman, tries to flee from the scene, but Thi husband, Nguyen Van Tuan, chased Mahmood to help her wife get back the money.
Tuan said :
I seized him by the collar, but he managed to reached the car, and [the woman] in the car already opened the door and started the car for him.
As he tried driving away, Tuan drove the car into the wall of a church nearby to stop the man. At this time, other people surrounding the scene of what was happening had come over to the car and surrounded it from moving, then called in the police.
The police came and took away Mahmood and the woman and child, who had helped him in escaping the crime scene.
Other shop owners have stepped forward to report that Mahmood have used the "Money Exchange trick" on them before.
Some of the shop owners that have come forward to report similar incidents are; Chau Thi Nhen , who said the man had stolen VND8,000,000 and Vu Van Hung, another shop owner in the province said that Mahmood had once stolen 14m Vietnamese Dong from him.