The HCM City police are investigating a robbery by two men who pretended to sell dollars to a jewelry shop and got away with almost VND1.3 billion after assaulting a shop employee.

On April 18 P.S jewelry shop in Ben Thanh Market in District 1 received a phone call from a man calling himself Hung who said he wanted to sell US$70,000.

He asked the shop to send him dong in exchange to 386/33 Le Van Sy, District 3.

An hour later, when Nguyen Duc Toan, 33, the shop employee, took the money to the said address, two young men locked him up in a room and attacked him with an electric baton before tying him up and gagging him. Toan reportedly lost consciousness.

When he recovered consciousness, the robbers had fled with the money. “Hung” had rented the house only that morning.

The robbery is similar to a recent case when a man posed as a policeman and tried to steal 400 taels of gold in District 7, the police said.

They asked jewelry shops to be more alert when carrying out big deals.