Police in Da Nang City, central Vietnam on Wednesday arrested five suspects and are looking for other accomplices who allegedly stole over 100 mobile phones while sheltering from rising floodwaters in a local electronics store last week.  

Police in Da Nang confirmed on Wednesday that they had arrested Ho Minh Tri, 19, and four other suspects for their crimes.

According to a preliminary investigation, Tri said that aside from stealing phones for himself, he had 'gifted' ten other phones to ten people who were sheltering from historic floods at the Dien May Xanh store on the city’s Ton Duc Thang Street.

Investigators have since dispatched an announcement asking anyone who received a mobile phone from Tri to contact authorities in order to receive instructions on how to handle the stolen property in accordance with local regulations.

The Dien May Xanh store on Ton Duc Thang Street became inundated during the torrential rains and historic flooding that submerged Da Nang on October 14. 

T., a 28-year-old Dien May Xanh employee, and other staff were putting electronic items in plastic bags to protect them from water damage when she allowed nine individuals who were being stranded by floodwaters to enter the store to take refuge from the storm. 

At around 11:30 pm that day, T. and the other Dien May Xanh employees, as well as several people who were sheltering at the store, went upstairs to rest, leaving others on the ground floor.

At that time, the store’s tempered glass door had been locked but the roll-up door remained open.

Around 1:30 am the next day, T. went downstairs to check up the store when she saw that the tempered glass door had completely smashed and those who had taken shelter at the store had apparently left with mobile phones.

The stolen property included 130 mobile phones valued at a combined VND1.2 billion (US$49,000).

According to a preliminary investigation, the flooding on Ton Duc Thang Street is what caused the glass doors of the store to break, and the group of youngsters took advantage of the damage to steal the phones. 

Local police are still investigating the case and searching for other suspects in the incident.

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