On 24/11, HK01 reported that a male thief broke into a jewelry store in Yueyang, Hunan province, at night, stealing about 170 pieces of jewelry with a total value exceeding 3 million CNY (more than 11 billion VND).

Surveillance video showed a man dressed in black, wearing a hat and a mask. He forcibly pried open an iron door, squeezed through a narrow gap, and quickly stole the gold jewelry. However, the thief made a fatal error: he left his mobile phone at the scene during his escape.

The thief captured on the jewelry store's surveillance camera. *Photo: HK01*

Thanks to this crucial clue, police identified the suspect in just 40 minutes and apprehended him 5 hours later. At the time of his arrest, the thief was in a taxi, still searching for his phone and asking the driver, "Where is my phone?"

Upon arrest, he steadfastly refused to disclose the location where the gold was hidden. Authorities speculated that the thief had calculated that if the police failed to recover the gold, he could retain it after his release from prison, even if he served a sentence.

To recover the gold, police meticulously tracked the thief's movements before his arrest using an extensive network of street cameras. However, his trail was lost in a remote suburban area, causing the investigation to stall.

A new lead emerged from surveillance footage at a nearby chicken farm. The video showed the farm's dog barking continuously for a long period, coinciding with the exact time the thief's trail went cold. This led police to infer that the dog likely detected a stranger in the chicken farm area, and this stranger was likely the thief, in the act of hiding the gold.

170 gold jewelry items, valued at over 11 billion VND, were successfully recovered by police. *Photo: HK01*

Police dispatched a large force to thoroughly search the surrounding area. They ultimately found the stolen gold hidden under a large, inconspicuous rock within the chicken farm, successfully recovering the stolen jewelry.

Hai Thu (According to Sina, HK01)