A kind man in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong Province who returned a lost wallet to its owner was handcuffed and beaten by police.

Nong Van Thanh, a member of the Nung ethnic minority group in Tan Van Commune, Lam Ha District, was hospitalized at the district Health Center on March 23 thanks to pain in his chest and back after being released by police from another commune.

After examination, doctors said Thanh had suffered from multiple injuries that would require him to stay at the clinic for treatment.

Thanh said that in the afternoon of the 23^rd, when he returned the lost wallet to its owner, Tu Phuoc Vinh, Vinh suddenly shouted, “He could have been one of the thieves!” to two police officers who were accompanying him at that time.

The officers were investigating a theft that occurred at Vinh’s house on March 20. Vinh’s wallet was one of the items that had been stolen.

After Vinh shouted, the police officers immediately seized Thanh and handcuffed him. 

Thanh’s wife, Nguyen Thi Lan, was also handcuffed when she tried to pull her husband away.

Police then took Thanh to their office, where they beat him with their fists, elbows, and shoes on his back, hips, belly and legs, Thanh said.

The beating continued until 3 pm, when a police officer from Thanh’s commune, Tan Van,  came and offered a guarantee for him to be released. The officer had been informed of the case by Thanh’s relatives, who asked him to intervene.

Thanh recounted that on the morning of March 23, while he was did some gardening for a neighbor, a young came over to him, showed him a wallet, and said he had picked it accidentally.

The youth asked Thanh if he knew who the owner of the wallet was. The item held some papers, including a voucher on which the full name ‘Tu Phuoc Vinh’ and the place ‘Tan Hoi commune’ were shown.

Therefore, Thanh asked the man to give him the wallet so that he could look for Vinh and return it to him. The young man asked Thanh to pay him VND3 million (US$144) for the wallet.

Thanh refused to pay, and the young man eventually gave the wallet to him anyway and left.

In his defense, Vinh said he had been suffering from stress caused by the theft, so when he saw Thanh he thought he was one of the thieves.

Le Xuan Mai, head of the Phu Hoi Commune Police, said the two officers involved in the beating would be disciplined.

In January 2013, Thanh and three other people were elected by local residents as “the most reputable people” in the ethnic minority community in Tan Van Commune, local authorities said.