The Ho Chi Minh City Police detained two people July 19 accused of kidnapping an 18-month-old child and demanding a ransom of 300 gold taels (360 troy ounces).
The child, Nguyen Vo Thanh Tuyen, had been missing for the past three months.
On the afternoon of April 20, Nguyen Phuc Hoang, a pharmaceutical business owner in District 11, reported his daughter’s disappearance to district police.
On April 24, he received a phone call from a stranger saying that kidnappers were holding his daughter and demanding he give them 300 taels in exchange for her release.
Realizing that the case was serious, the police reported it to the HCMC Police Department of Criminal Investigation on Social Order (coded PC45) and the Investigation Police Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security in HCMC.
On one hand, the police force instructed Hoang’s family how to negotiate with the kidnappers and prepare the ransom; on the other hand, they made plans to rescue the child and trap the kidnappers.
The kidnappers were rather cunning. They changed locations continuously and took no action for a long time, causing the case to drag out for three months.
July 19, the HCMC Police succeeded when they detected the abductors and brought the child to her family.
One of the kidnappers is Nguyen Chi Trung, age 29, who lives in district 1 and is a relative of the family.
