VietNamNet Bridge – Nguyen Van Minh Tien, 35, who has caught hundreds of robbers and is called “Street Knight” has set up a team of robber hunters. This team will patrol HCM City’s streets 24/7.

"Knights of streets" arrests a robber.

At the beginning, Tien’s team included only four members. The number of members is presently at 18, and is mainly made up of young people. Tien and his teammates patrol HCM City’s streets everyday. The team’s members are trained with martial arts and necessary skills, under a curriculum written based on Tien’s experience.

Since 2005, Tien has dealt with 25-35 robbery cases on the street. In the last two months, his team seized 11 robbers. In late-2008, Tien was in an accident while chasing a robber. His motorbike was destroyed in the accident. Vice Chairman of HCM City, Nguyen Thanh Tai, visited him at the hospital and presented him a new motorbike.

As Tien’s group is working at their own funding, Tien wishes to have assistance to buy two high-speed motorbikes to serve their work.

Tien said a company announced to give a bonus of VND5 million for each case, but Tien refused. “We don’t exchange our lives for bonus,” Tien said.

VietNamNet/TP