Thursday, March 28, 2024

Police apprehend suspects in string of Little Saigon-area robberies

Mary Tran/Nguoi Viet English

Westminster, California (NV) — Police in Garden Grove announced Thursday night that they have arrested two male juveniles who match the description of suspects responsible for a number of recent robberies in and around Little Saigon. In the robberies, victims’ necklaces were ripped from their necks.

Over the past two weeks, at four of the robberies occurred in the daytime. The first three took place in Westminster, with one more Thursday in Garden Grove. In that time period, there were about 10 thefts involving handbags and necklaces in Westminster, Garden Grove and Anaheim, said Chris Nguyen, a Westminster police officer.

Ta Duc Tri, the mayor of Westminster, instructed police in his city to collaborate with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and law-enforcement agencies in adjacent cities to investigate the robberies. Ralph Ornelas, Westminster’s police chief, also asked Vietnamese media to alert the community to the crime spree.

The break in the case appears to have come Thursday after a woman said her necklace was stolen from her in the parking lot of the 99 Cents Only Stores location at the corner of Westminster Avenue and Brookhurst Street in Garden Grove. The woman, 44, said she was putting her two young children in the car when she was approached by two men.

“I don’t know if the police had already been here before, but when I just screamed ‘robbery,’ a group of policemen immediately ran over. … Fortunately, police caught these guys.”

The string of robberies has left local residents on edge.

Westminster police officer take pictures of injuries on the victim’s neck. (Photo: Linh Nguyễn/Người Việt)

One robbery occurred in a restaurant on Bolsa Avenue during a celebration for Mother’s Day. The woman who said she was victimized wrote on her Facebook page that her party was seated next the emergency exit, which couldn’t be opened from the outside. She said a male approached her table and opened the emergency exit to give access to another male, whom she said reached in, snatched the necklace from around her neck and ran.

The woman wrote on her Facebook page: “The whole table screamed but couldn’t react!”

An employee of the Nuoc Mia-Hot Vit Lon Long An store said she also had an encounter with a man intent on stealing her necklace on Tuesday.

Nước Mía-Hột Vịt Lộn Long An store in ABC market, where the robbery happened during the day. (Photo: Ngọc Lan/Người Việt)

“I was standing in the store, near the door, and was looking outside. The guy walked over from the direction of the liquor store,” she said. Suddenly, she said, the man “snatched the gold necklace on my neck. I raised both of my hands to grasp it back. And both sides held on with tension. Then I hit his head and yelled. When I used one of my hands to hit him, he used both of his hands to grasp the necklace but couldn’t. Then people came over and he ran.”

One 43-year-old man said he wasn’t as lucky. On Monday, he rode his bike to the My Thuan Market at Magnolia Street and Westminster Avenue in Garden Grove.

“I left my bicycle in front at the entrance and went inside to buy some food to go,” he said. “ When I came out, I saw him sitting on my bicycle. He asked me if the bicycle was mine, and in a flash, he snatched the necklace on my neck. I lost my balance, fell down, and saw him run toward the Newland Street direction,” he told a Nguoi Viet reporter.

Note: This report is written in collaboration with Linh Nguyen, Ngoc Lan Nguyen, and Khoa Lai at Nguoi Viet Daily News.

MỚI CẬP NHẬT