The daughter of a forest-ranger chief sent her father threatening SMS messages pretending to be an illegal logger since she was worried loggers would attack him if he continued to arrest them.

Vo Thi Hang Nga also drank liquid soap to make it appear that loggers had invaded their house in the central province of Ha Tinh and poisoned her.

She used a cell phone she rarely uses – and her family is not aware of – to pretend she was a logger to text her father, Vo Xuan Son, and threatening to attack his family if he continued to arrest illegal loggers, online newspaper VietnamNet reported Wednesday.

Son, head of Ha Tinh’s southern forest management unit, said he was shocked to know it was his daughter who had sent so many threatening messages since early December.

The police traced the number – back to Nga, Tien Phong said Wednesday.

Nga said she noticed that many illegal loggers were caught since Son took charge.

After she saw forest rangers threatened and assaulted right in their office, Nga said she realized her father had taken up a “dangerous” job.

The 11th-grader said she had beseeched her father many times to change jobs, but in vain.

So she decided to pretend to be a logger to threaten Son and on December 12 drank the soap, Nga told the police.

After drinking the solution, she had sent her brother an SMS saying: “Are you Son’s son? Go home to check if your sister is dead. If you’re smart, tell your father to stop.”

Nga was rushed to hospital and treated for two days before being transferred to Hanoi.

Son then asked the Ky Anh District police to protect his family. “I am not scared. We will continue to protect forests and hunt down illegal timber traders and traffickers,” Son said before finding out the truth.

So Nga continued to send him threatening text messages. On December 18 she said “I know your family schedule. You should wait for further attacks. Don’t blame me for not warning you.”

Her mother, Vo Thi Hoa, fainted on seeing the message.

Nga told the police: “I told my father to quit many times but he didn’t listen. So I thought of texting him, hoping my father would think more about quitting the job,” VietnamNet quoted her as saying.”

Loggers attacking forest wardens is not a new occurrence, especially in the central region.

In January, six rangers in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak were attacked and injured, one of them seriously, after they intervened in an illegal logging operation.

Last September, Vo Van Nam of the Quang Nam Province forest management agency was killed while chasing loggers when his motorbike crashed into their vehicle.

Forest wardens in the Central Highlands are finding it increasingly difficult to discharge their duties since they have few staff and illegal loggers resort to violence.

VietNamNet/Thanh Nien