Impersonating a toilet repairman, stealing property from 24 families

On May 11, the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City at first instance sentenced Tran Van Dang (living in Tan Binh district, Ho Chi Minh City) to 15 years in prison for the crime of “Theft of property”.

According to the indictment, Dang pretended to be a repairman of toilets, doors, air conditioners or bed-closing … to approach and openly enter other people’s houses. Taking advantage of the landlord’s loopholes, stealing many valuable properties.

Tran Van Dang often commits crimes in Binh Tan district

On the morning of August 29, 2018, Dang went to Ms. Nguyen Thi Cam Van’s house on Le Dinh Can Street, Tan Tao Ward, Binh Tan District.

Hearing the doorbell ring, the maid came out. Dang introduced himself as a mechanic who came to repair the toilet and then pretended to take the phone to call the owner (now not home) to build trust with the maid.

Thought the owner called the real toilet repairman, the maid carefree opened the gate, invited Dang to enter the house. Successfully breaking in with a simple trick, Dang pretended to ask the maid to fetch water.

Taking advantage of this moment, the thief sneaked into the bedroom to take all the jewelry and 40 million VND and then quickly escaped.

On September 10, 2018, this post pretended to be an acquaintance and invited Mr. Le Van Luyen (in Binh Tri Dong ward, Binh Tan district) to celebrate the housewarming. Seeing his mother Luyen at home alone, Dang “volunteered” to help repair the toilet.

When Luyen’s mother was not careful, Dang “stealed” 30 million VND, 2,000 USD and many jewelry and gold bars.

Also using tricks to repair the toilet, Dang entered Mr. Pham Quang Toan’s house (Binh Hung Hoa ward, Binh Tan district) and stole 145 million VND, 2 savings books.

The prosecutor’s office determined that in less than 2 years, Tran Van Dang blatantly entered 24 families (mainly in Binh Tan district) just by pretending to be a toilet repairman, an acquaintance…

Thanks to that, Dang stole many properties with a value equivalent to more than 5.3 billion VND.

In court, Dang claimed to have brought all the stolen money to Cambodia to play cockfights and then lost everything.