Bizarre chronicles of 2023: oddities unfold in Vietnam

Illiterate chief

As police investigated possible violations by a private-owned automotive registration center in Ho Chi Minh City’s Nha Be District in January, they found that its director, Ho Huu Tai, cannot read or write.

Police then found that Tai, 52, is illiterate, but worked as the chief of the center, as it belongs to a man who owes him money.

Ho Huu Tai (C) is arrested as police investigate violations at his vehicle registration center in HCMC, January 2023. Photo by police

Before 2019 all vehicle registration centers were state agencies.

Then the government allowed private operators to set them up if they met certain conditions. That year, Nguyen Thanh Phong, 42, opened the center.

During the Covid pandemic, the center suffered losses and Phong had to borrow money from Tai.

In return, in 2021 he made Tai the center’s director and transferred part of its ownership to him.

Both Tai and Phong were arrested as police looked into a series of violations including “bribery” and “forgery of documents” at many vehicle registration centers across Vietnam.

Downtown horse riding

On Feb. 14, a man caught everyone’s attention for showing up in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 3 on a horse.

Wearing the uniform of a ride-hailing firm, the 23-year-old rode a white horse down several streets, forcing drivers to pull their cars over to avoid hitting the animal.

A man rides a white horse in a downtown HCMC street on Feb. 14, 2023. Photo by HCMC’s Traffic Police Department

The man and the horse were pulled over by traffic police after they caused traffic disorder when people stopped to take photos and videos of the rare scene.

The rider was then fined VND160,000 (US$6.74) for “having animals trespass roads for motor vehicle” and “not having enough equipment to collect animal’s waste or not cleaning up animal’s waste on the street or sidewalk.”

He told the police that he had rented the horse from a nearby farm and was riding the animal to promote the ride-hailing firm. But the company said it had no such policy employing the man.

House inside street

In March, a new road was open to connect a residential area with another street in Dong Trieu Town in the northern province of Quang Ninh.

A house occupies two thirds of the road in Quang Ninh Province, leaving just enough space for a car to pass. Photo by VnExpress/Le Tan

In the middle of the existing street was a two-story house owned by the family of Nguyen Thi Luyen, who had refused to be relocated so the house could be demolished to make room or the project.

Town authorities had announced in 2021 they would resettle 151 families to build the road.

Luyen’s home was on the list of houses slated for demolition, and her family was to be relocated in line with the plan, but they turned down the compensation offer and refused to move.

The authorities, however, went on to construct the road.

Now finished and open to traffic, the new road stretches 2.3 km long and seven meters wide, but a section of 14 m long was left uncompleted as Luyen’s house occupied two-thirds of the road, leaving a space of just two meters wide for traffic.

However, Luyen’s family has just finally agreed to relocate to give space for the road.

Bike DUI

A 47-year-old woman was stopped by traffic police at a DUI checkpoint in a village in the northern border province of Son La Province in March.

Officers fined the woman VND80,000 (US$3.41) and seized her bicycle for seven days after she was found to have been driving under the influence of alcohol.

She was found to have an alcohol level of 0.073 mg per liter of breath as she was riding the bike.

A traffic police officer tests a cyclist for alcohol in Yen Chau District of Son La Province, March 29, 2023. Photo by the police

She told police that her family makes wine for a living and therefore she usually tastes the product. She also said that she thought she would not get into trouble if she was riding a bicycle.

Under current regulations, alcohol concentration of more than 80mg/100 ml of blood or 0.4mg/l of breath attracts the highest fines of VND30-VND40 million ($1,293-$1,724). Drunk driving only results in criminal prosecution when it causes accidents or other consequences.

Duck mission

A man in the Mekong Delta’s An Giang Province stole a total of 500 ducks from a local farm in two separate heists last March.

Nguyen Van Canh, 36, began coveting the ducks when he saw thousands of them in a field near his house this spring.

He rented a truck and drove to the field. When the ducks’ keeper let their guard down, the thief lured some 200 ducks towards the road and then into the truck. He drove them home, about 10 km away.

Canh kept the birds at his house, waiting for them to lay eggs so he could sell them.

He returned to the field on March 30 and stole about 300 more ducks.

Nguyen Van Canh at a police station in An Giang Province in southern Vietnam for stealing ducks. Photo by VnExpress/An Phu

On April 4, when the ducks’ owner noticed the missing ducks, they suspected theft and reported the property theft to the police. Canh was summoned by authorities in May and admitted to what he did.

Around 500 ducks have been returned from his house to their rightful owner.

Wedding feud

A brawl erupted at a wedding in HCMC in May between friends of the bride and groom, resulting in several being injured.

Video footage of the dispute at the wedding at Dam Sen water park in District 11 showed dozens of people getting into a verbal disagreement, before one member of the group left the venue and came back with others armed with sticks and pitchforks.

As they were trying to get back into the venue, they were blocked at the door. The group then smashed down several doors and a chaotic brawl ensued.

 

 

Bizarre chronicles of 2023: oddities unfold in Vietnam

Hỗn chiến ở tiệc cưới

The entire ordeal lasted about a minute, with several people receiving mild injuries.

An initial investigation by local that the dispute was over a business disagreement between two friend groups of the bride and groom.

Miscommunication bridge

A temporary bridge in the Mekong Delta’s Tra Vinh Province collapsed in July after two trucks, weighing a total of around 20 tons, drove over it.

Pham The Hien, general director of the Tuan Hien company, which is constructing the Long Binh 1 Bridge in Tra Vinh, said the collapsed bridge, spanning 50 m and made of iron, was built over the Long Binh River for people to use while waiting for the new bridge.

Two trucks were deployed onto the iron bridge to test its load, causing it to collapse.

A three-ton-capacity temporary bridge collapses in Tra Vinh Province in southern Vietnam after trucks weighing 20 tons drove onto it for a test drive, July 16, 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Lam

“I was on a trip. At home, a technical officer said trucks weighing 2-3 tons need to be found to test the temporary bridge’s load (with a capacity at 2-3 tons). However, drivers misheard it to be 20-30 tons, so they used two trucks, each weighing a dozen tons, to go on the bridge at the same time,” said Hien.

No one was injured in the incident, but the company lost hundreds of millions of dong (VND100 million = US$4,230) and must rebuild the temporary bridge.

Halloween hearse

On Halloween night, a group of eight rented a driver and a hearse to travel from HCMC’s District 7 to District 1.

When they reached the Nguyen Hue pedestrian square, where many Halloween revelers had gathered, the driver opened the door for the passengers, who dressed like “ghosts,” to cheer and “scare” others.

 

 

Bizarre chronicles of 2023: oddities unfold in Vietnam

Tài xế lái xe tang diễu hành đêm Haloween bị phạt

They stopped the hearse in the middle of the street and the passengers took out a stretcher pretending to seek medical attention for an injured person. Their performance attracted a crowd.

The next day, the 38-year-old man who drove the hearse was fined VND700,000 (US$28.5) for violating a government decree on keeping vehicle doors closed while driving them. A week later, the eight passengers were fined VND400,000 (US$16.37) per person for “disturbing public order.”

Lobster heist

In October, camera footage of a seafood restaurant in Hanoi’s Cau Giay District showed a masked man stealing a live lobster worth around VND9 million (US$370) from its tank.

After breaking into the restaurant late at night, the suspect looked around cautiously and plunged his hands into a live lobster tank, taking one lobster that weighed about 3.5 kilograms.

 

 

Bizarre chronicles of 2023: oddities unfold in Vietnam

Giả vờ vào mua hàng ăn trộm tôm hùm giá gần 9 triệu

When he was preparing to escape, a security guard discovered the theft and tried to capture him. However, the thief kicked the guard down and ran away.

The restaurant filed a report to police officers and released the camera footage on its official Facebook page. The thief has not been caught.

Slow, and yet, still furious

At a red light in Ba Ria City in southern Vietnam on Nov. 21, passers-by witnessed a five-seat car slowly and gently bumping into an SUV sedan from behind several times.

The SUV then turned around and slowly headbutted the car behind several times.

The entire drama lasted for around three minutes. Many people stopped and filmed it. Both drivers then drove away and none got out of their vehicles.

 

 

Bizarre chronicles of 2023: oddities unfold in Vietnam

Lái xe Lexus tông ôtô 5 chỗ

A few days later, police identified the two drivers, and on Nov. 29, Nguyen Dinh Ky, 41, and Phan Hoang Bich Tien, 31, were detained for “deliberately causing damage to others’ properties.”

The two told the police that they were doing business together. They had argued at a coffee shop earlier, so Tien drove her five-seat cat to hit Ky’s SUV sedan when stopping at the red light.