Armed bank robber busted after 45 hours

It was 3 p.m. on January 7 at the Vietcombank branch on Dinh Vu Street in Hai An District, Haiphong City. Everything seemed normal until a young man wearing a face mask, a black cap, a black jacket and a backpack entered the bank’s office. About 15 minutes later, the man in the black cap suddenly came to a counter and directly pointed a gun to the bank tellers there, demanding them to give him money. At the business end of his gun barrel, a female teller had to put bundles of banknotes onto the counter and the robber promptly put them in his backpack. On the way out, he threatened a man in a car parked outside the bank to give him a ride, but the driver did not open the car’s door. The robber then took the motorbike of a security guard and fled with VND3.5 billion (roughly US$150,000) worth of brand-new banknotes. From the video footage at the branch, the police traced down the armed robber and discovered he was in a guesthouse in Vinh Yen City in Vinh Phuc Province. However, by the time police officers arrived, he had already gone. Police sources soon disclosed that the robber had spent VND700 million buying a high-performance motorcycle in Hanoi. He was using the vehicle. It was not very difficult for the police to trail the expensive motorbike. The robber was identified in Pho Yen Town in Thai Nguyen Province. At 11:30 a.m. on January 9, criminal police officers spotted the motorcycle parked at a local guesthouse. Soon afterward, five policemen burst into the room where the robber was sleeping. The bank robber, Nguyen Van Nam, 24, a freelance tattooer, was arrested with his two guns and many bullets. The police have retrieved almost all the robbed money, tuoitre.vn reported, except for the VND700 million used to buy the motorcycle.