'Thief' who specializes in cutting electric cables from lamp posts in Hai Duong gets sentence

The People's Court of Hai Duong province has just held a first-instance trial and sentenced Quan Van Huong (born in 1989, residing in Dai Duc commune, Kim Thanh) to 4 years in prison for theft of property and 1 year and 3 months in prison for illegal possession of drugs.

Because he needed money to buy drugs, from October 2023 to September 10, 2024, Huong stole electric cables many times in Hai Duong province.

From 1-4am, Huong often rides his motorbike to intersections and bridges and uses a metal bar to remove the base of the two caps on the lampposts. Then, he uses pliers to cut dozens of meters of electric cable inside.

With the above tricks, Huong has stolen more than 552 meters of electric cables for lighting roads 8 times at the following locations: traffic light intersection of Provincial Road 390 in Quyet Thang Commune (Hai Duong City); May Bridge in Thang Long Commune (Kinh Mon); National Highway 38B intersection from the toll station to Hanoi in Gia Loc Town; Ngoc Ky Bridge in Gia Luong Commune (Gia Loc); Hiep Thuong Bridge in Phu Thu Ward (Kinh Mon); Binh Bridge in Dong Lac Ward (Chi Linh City); Cuu An Bridge in Tan Phong Commune (Ninh Giang).

After the theft, Huong took the electric wire to an empty lot, a garbage dump on the dike in An Hoa commune, An Duong district (Hai Phong city) or Dong Doi village cemetery, Thong Kenh commune (Gia Loc) to strip the shell to get the copper core inside and sell it for more than 26 million VND. Huong used this money for personal expenses and to buy drugs for use. The total value of the property that Huong had appropriated was 77 million VND. At about 11:00 a.m. on September 15, 2024, the Investigation Police Agency (Hai Duong Provincial Police) discovered that Huong was hiding 0.271 g of heroin for use at a motel in Gia Loc town.

Huong has two previous convictions for receiving property obtained through criminal activity and theft of property.