Police in Hanoi have arrested two young men for breaking into and stealing property from the home of two South African women in the city last month.

>> Dramatic police chase in HCMC after thieves snatch foreigners’ bag      After an investigation, police from the city’s Tay Ho District arrested on Tuesday Tran Hai Ha and Le Van Thanh, who work as mason’s assistants, on charges of stealing property.   The theft’s victims are Megan Rosslyn Smith and Courtney Rose Fowles, who reside in the district.

The two thieves have pleaded guilty to the charges.  

While Ha and Thanh were working at house 85 on alley 124/89, Au Co Street, Tay Ho District, Thanh noticed that the window on the third floor of the neighboring house, where the two women were living, was often left open.

He asked Ha to join him in a scheme to break into the house and rob it. Ha agreed.

At 7:30 pm on September 26, the two men went up to the fourth floor of house 85b and then climbed to the third floor of the women’s house.

They entered through the open window and searched for valuables.

They stole two mobile phones, an Ipad2, a Kindle E-book reader, six bracelets and ten metal rings.

They then hid these items on the top floor of the house they were working on.

At 10 pm the same day, Thanh brought the jewelry to Luong Manh Cuong, another young man living in Soc Son District, and asked Cuong to sell the goods.

Cuong took the jewelry to a local market and offered to sell them, but nobody bought anything.

After noticing the break-in, the two women reported the crime  to Tay Ho police, who examined the scene and launched an investigation that led to the arrests of Thanh and Ha yesterday.

Thanh also confessed that he had broken into the same house on September 16 and taken an iPhone 5s.

The phone was later determined to be owned by Megan Rosslyn Smith, police said. 

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