Authorities in HCM City and
neighbouring Binh Duong Province have continued urgent measures to prevent
criminals from scattering nails along highways as a means of charging exorbitant
fees to repair flat tyres.

Police collect scattered nails with mobile magnetic boxes towed on the back of their motorbikes in Binh Duong Highway in HCM City’s Thu Dau Mot Town. (Photo: VNS)

Although
a large nail scattering ring was recently caught, a meeting was held in HCM City
by the Binh Duong Youth Union, HCM City’s Thu Duc District Youth Union and Thu
Duc Police. All agreed to join hands to control the issue.

Meeting
participants planned to make random investigations of motorbike repair shops on
highways and look in on nail production enterprises.

An
initial investigation revealed that four out of seven motorbike repair shops had
collaborated with criminals to scatter nails on roadways for economic gain.

Meanwhile in Binh Duong Province, a mobile puncture mending team was established
to fix flat tyres free of charge along the Binh Duong Highway.

The team
was founded by members of the Phu Hoa Crime Prevention Team and the Phu Tho Ward
Youth Union.

Stranded motorists can call 0922056166 or 0984771525 for help,
said team member Tran Hoang Anh.

Since
the Lunar New Year, the Binh Duong Youth Union has collected more than 20kg of
nails from local streets.

On
Sunday, police in Binh Duong caught one nail scattering ring at work along the
Binh Duong Highway.

Leader
of the five-member ring, Pham Van Canh, 32, admitted to scattering nails to
benefit not only his repair shop, but also 10 other shops along the highway.

His four
accomplices, aged from 24 to 31, were arrested by the provincial police.

The
police also confiscated a number of tools used to make nails from their shops.

At the
beginning of this year, the Thu Dau Mot Tribunal imprisoned five people for
scattering nails along roadways.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News