Police in the central city of Da Nang on Monday said they had arrested a 21-year-old local man suspected of snatching a handbag containing valuables including a diamond ring from a Russian traveler earlier this month.

Tran Hong Hieu, 21, was detained on Friday last week, eight days after he allegedly grasped the bag from Reviakina Ekarerina, a 30-year-old woman of Russian nationality, on a Da Nang street on November 5.

Hieu is under investigation on charges of “property robbery by snatching,” police said.

According to the case file, at about 5:00 pm on November 5, Hieu traveled on a motorbike around streets in the city to look for ‘prey.’

When Hieu reached Hoang Ke Viem Street in My An Ward, he saw Ekarerina sitting in front of a house taking a drink, with a handbag placed on a chair besides her.

The man then got close to the foreigner, snatched the bag and sped up to escape.

He returned to his rented room on Le Duan Street to hide the bag there, while the woman reported the street robbery to police.

The snatched handbag contained an iPhone 6 Plus, US$6,900, 20,000 Russian rubles ($306), a pair of earrings, a diamond ring worth about $50,000, and other personal papers, the victim told police.

During their investigation, police officers discovered that the victim’s iPhone 6 Plus was being used by a Vietnamese woman, N.T.T., of Hai Chau District.

Based on T.’s testimony related to how she had bought the iPhone Plus from a man, police tracked down Hieu and arrested him at a discotheque in the south-central city of Nha Trang on November 13.

After being captured, Hieu initially admitted to snatching the bag from the foreign woman.

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