WITHIN 18 days here, a Vietnamese visitor filched 20 cell
phones, and an assortment of MP3 players and cameras from
unsuspecting victims.
Nguyen Thi Lan, 47, nearly got away with it. She was only
arrested on July 24 when she was about to board a flight home. She
was jailed 10 months on Tuesday after she admitted to 21 theft
offences and one count of fraudulent possession of stolen
goods.
A district court heard that she stole the 20 cell phones and
other gadgets as well as cash amounting to $1,360 and US$240 that
were found on her at the airport.
Police were able to trace the owners of eight cell phones, and
from the footage of closed-circuit television in shops where Nguyen
had committed the offence. The owners of the other items could not
be verified and Nguyen herself could not remember where she had
stolen them.
The short plump foreigner would frequent shopping centres and
sidled up to her victims before unzipping their handbags or pouches
of the backpacks to steal the cell phones and any items in
there.
By Khushwant Singh - Straits Times
