Heartbreaking: Peach gardens destroyed, billions of dong in damage

Sharing with reporters, Mr. Ha Minh Lap, Vice Chairman of Kim Hoa Commune, Me Linh District, Hanoi City said: Immediately after receiving information from local people about the vandalism of nearly 300 Tet peach trees, Kim Hoa Commune Police urgently established a working group to work with local people and count the damage.

"Currently, to ensure the verification and clarification of the case is carried out quickly and effectively, the authorities have increased the force from the Criminal Police Department of Me Linh district and related professional units to urgently search for the criminals who sabotaged the people's peach trees," said Mr. Lap.

According to residents of Phu Tri village, Kim Hoa commune, Me Linh district, Hanoi, on the night of October 5 to the early morning of October 6, thieves took advantage of the darkness to break into the peach growing areas of many households, destroying nearly 300 peach trees that were being prepared for sale during Tet, causing an estimated loss of nearly a billion VND.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Tinh (Phu Tri village, Kim Hoa commune, Me Linh, Hanoi) - the person who suffered the most damage in the peach garden destruction - said that security here is very secure, there has never been a similar incident before so the supervision is not strict.

"About 30 households had their peach gardens vandalized by thieves, who chopped off branches and broke many trees, damaging their shape and making them useless, only usable as firewood. So all our efforts were wasted," Ms. Tinh tearfully shared.

According to Ms. Tinh, most of the damaged peach trees cost about 3 - 7 million VND, many large, beautiful, old peach trees cost up to 10 - 20 million VND.

Similarly, the family of Mr. Nguyen Manh Cuong (Phu Tri village, Kim Hoa commune, Me Linh, Hanoi) has been losing sleep for many days because of regret. He said: “My house lost more than 20 trees, causing damage of more than 100 million VND. The whole family has been losing sleep because of regret. Everyone is heartbroken but doesn’t know what to do.”

Present at the destroyed peach gardens, we noted that most of the peach trees had been broken from the middle of the trunk; the old bonsai peach trees - these were trees that had been numbered and had received deposits from customers - had their branches broken, ruining the shape of the peach trees. The broken peach branches had not been cleared away, and were strewn across the paths in the garden.

Currently, households whose peach trees have been chopped down by thieves hope that the authorities will soon find the culprits and deal with them severely. Hundreds of peach trees that have been chopped down will have to be abandoned, and perhaps rebuilt from scratch. This year, many households have confirmed that they have suffered heavy losses, with almost no peach trees left to sell for Tet like every year.

Speaking to Lao Dong reporter, lawyer Chu Quang Minh - Director of FB LAW LLC said that the subject destroyed citizens' property (nearly 300 peach trees), this act constitutes the crime of "Crime of destroying or intentionally damaging property" according to the provisions of Article 178 of the Penal Code 2015; amended and supplemented in 2017.

"If this act is carried out in an organized manner, it can be considered a crime of hooliganism or organized crime, disregarding the law and causing local insecurity and disorder, and seriously affecting the lives of the victims, so it needs to be strictly punished to set an example," said lawyer Chu Quang Minh.

Lawyer Chu Quang Minh said that determining the penalty must be based on the value of the damaged property as a result of the damage assessment request by the competent investigation agency.