4 suspects detained for throwing paint at cars in Hanoi

On the evening of May 4, a leader of the Hoang Mai District Police (Hanoi) said that they had urgently arrested and temporarily detained Ngo Xuan Huu (born in 1978) and Phan Van Toai (born in 1978), both from Dinh Cong Ward, Hoang Mai District, Nguyen Thanh Nam (born in 1979, from Hoang Van Thu Ward, Hoang Mai District) and Tran Trong Khang (born in 1978, from Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi), to investigate the act of intentionally damaging property.

Police determined that in the early morning of April 21, at the yard of the No 14C and CT16 apartment buildings in Dinh Cong urban area, 6 cars were splashed with red paint and had to be repainted. The total damage was over 30 million VND.

According to some witnesses, at around 1:30 a.m. on April 21, people saw someone wandering around the yard of the No. 14C apartment building. Suspicious, people went out to check and noticed a strong smell of paint, at the same time a subject wearing a raincoat ran towards the CT16 building.

By May 3, Hoang Mai District Police had clarified and successively summoned and arrested 4 subjects related to the incident.

Working with the police, the subjects stated that Ngo Xuan Huu had a parking lot in the yard of CT1A apartment building. Huu saw some cars not having a contract to park in his lot but instead moving to the parking lot in the yard of the apartment building next door.

On April 11, Huu met his social friend Phan Van Toai and told him about the cars moving to the neighboring lot. Toai told Huu to let him handle it and threatened the car owner. Huu agreed and told Toai to “just break a few car wipers” so that the car owner would be afraid to bring them to Huu’s lot.

On April 20, Toai met Huu and asked him to give him 2 million VND to hire someone to sabotage his car. Huu immediately transferred the money to Toai.

That same afternoon, Toai called his social friend Pham Thanh Nam and asked: "If there is anyone who is quick on their feet and hands, please help me with some small tasks." Nam agreed. Toai gave Nam 1.9 million VND and promised to give him more money after the job was done.

Accepting the offer, Nam picked up Tran Trong Khang by motorbike and then the two met Toai to take them to the location where they needed to vandalize the cars parked in the apartment building's yard. After identifying the location, Nam and Khang agreed to throw paint on the cars.

At around 0:00 on April 21, Nam drove a truck with license plate number 29D - 424.XX to pick up Khang. On the way to Dinh Cong area, the subjects bought paint and anti-rust gasoline to mix together. Near the yard of the No 14 and CT 16 apartment buildings, Nam got out of the car to observe and then told Khang to put on a raincoat and go in to pour paint on the cars. Within a few minutes, 6 cars were splashed with paint.

On April 22, Nam and Khang went to see Toai, and Toai gave them another 2 million VND. Nam gave Khang 1 million VND and deducted 500,000 VND from the money Khang owed him before.