A recent photo of a tourist that passed out and later was seen crying in Saigon has sparked outrage among citizens of the country and the authorities in Vietnam after a yet to be named tourist was recently a victim of a snatch and grab syndicate that has been operating in the city for quite a long time.
According to the media, the tourist and her friend were staying with a friend in Ho Chi Minh city and had decided to look around the area of the city, and had approached the backpackers area(District 1) when a man on a bike grabbed his bike and took off.
According to a woman at the scene of the crime, the tourist was so scared, she passed out. She woke up and cried as sympathisers tried to comfort her.
The victim said that all her money, passport were all in the bag that was snatched.
There have been a series of snatch and grab in the backpackers of Saigon and while authorities tries to capture them, the gangs keep getting larger.
Expats in Saigon have complained about a man, Đặng Tuấn Thanh (born 1995, in Tây Ninh) and was arrested in 2013 for theft, and was allowed to go after a year. Thanh is currently a menace in the backpackers area and different tourists and residents of the Ho Chi Minh have complained of this man harassing them with a gun to obtain money or asking for ID. It will be unwise to test if is gun is real or not.
Đặng Tuấn Thanh
Read what expats are saying about Thanh here
Authorities in Vietnam are trying to get the tourist to apologize to her.