Police in Ho Chi Minh City are hunting down a group of thieves that broke into a number of gold shops and bank branches inside the Cong Hoa Maximark Supermarket on Wednesday and took away gold and cash.

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The social crime investigation police division under the HCMC Police Department is investigating the case to identify the perpetrators, the victims, and their losses. At 7:30 am yesterday morning, staffers of the supermarket, located on Cong Hoa Street in Tan Binh District, found many jewelry shops and bank offices forced open. They immediately reported the findings to the supermarket’s security guards who then called police to the scene. As shown in images recorded by many cameras installed across the supermarket, the incident occurred at about 3 am on October 15 when a group of about seven people used hammers, pincers, and welding tools to cut or force open safe boxes at bank branches and smashed glass windows at jewelry shops. Nguyen Ngoc Hung, director of Minh Khai SJC, said that all the jewelry items and cash at the company’s shop in the supermarket had gone. The company is calculating the total value of the lost property, Hung said.  Meanwhile, the thieves failed to force open the safe containing silver at a silver shop belonging to the Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ). Thieves had used welding tools but failed, staffers said. Similarly, Nguyen Thi Cuc, deputy general director of PNJ, reported that the thieves failed to open a safe at a gold shop of the company located inside the supermarket. The safe has eight hinges and the thieves managed to destroy six of them but failed to pry out the safe, which is very heavy, Cuc said. Nguyen Thanh Toai, deputy general director of the Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) said his bank’s branch at the supermarket lost nothing. For safety reasons, the bank has adopted a rule that no cash is left at its branches at the end of the day.

However, the thieves caused a mess at the branch and its staff will need time to resume order. Nguyen Phuong Thao, director of the Maximark Cong Hoa, said on Wednesday afternoon that the supermarket’s management is coordinating with police in investigating the case.

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