Military Police Thwart Container Truck Heist in Kompong Speu

Military police in Kompong Speu province on Friday arrested eight men for attempting to rob a parked container truck full of undergarments from a Phnom Penh factory, but released six of the suspects the same day, officials said Sunday.

“The military police arrested eight people on Friday night,” Na­tional Military Police spokesman Kheng Tito said Sunday. “They were all suspects, but only two of them are being detained now be­cause the rest of them were not involved.”

Hong Vinol, director of the military police’s information and security department, said the would-be thieves were caught just before breaking into the truck, which was parked in an empty lot.

“They were about to cut the lock of the container truck,” he said. “They had a motorized cutting machine, a hacksaw and other tools.”

Tith Vannak, director of the Kompong Speu military police’s penal office, identified the two men who remain in custody as Dith Van­tha, 36, and Van Sarom, 35, and said they were being held at the provincial military police headquarters.

Mr. Vannak said the driver of the truck fled the scene before police could identify or arrest him.

Vy Solina, an administrator at CIK Cambodia garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district, said Sunday that the clothing the robbers were after—mostly undershirts and underwear—belonged to the factory. She said CIK Cambodia had hired a company called Pantos Logistics to transport the load to the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port.

“Pantos Logistics called us on Friday and said they did not see the container truck arrive at the port yet,” she said.

“We wanted the container truck to drive to the Phnom Penh port, but the driver drove in the opposite direction and was seen in Kom­pong Speu province,” she added.

Mao Kunthea, an accounting manager at Pantos Logistics, said her company had hired the truck from a man who ran an unnamed transportation firm.

“The truck had GPS; that was why it was found [by military po­lice],” she said. “The driver might have known the suspects and al­lowed them to steal the things.”

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