Two households in the central province of Quảng Trị decided that if DNA testing is good enough to determine the parents of humans, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be used to determine the identity of a calf’s biological mother.

The case, as reported by the Vietnamnet online newspaper, involved two families of cattle herders in Triệu Phong District’s Triệu Ái Commune - Trinh Minh T. and Phan Thị H.

Farmers in the region often let their cows graze unsupervised in the hills for long periods of up to a month.

The row between the two households began last November with the birth of a baby cow, with each insisting it was theirs.

H. claimed the baby belonged to her family and accused T. of being a thief.  T. reported the incident to local authorities and said he had been insulted.

Initially, authorities asked H. to give VNĐ3,000,000 (US$134) to T in order to get the calf, but neither side agreed.

The case was then brought to the Quảng Trị People’s Court, which asked the LOCI DNA testing centre for help.

The test result was surprising: the calf and a female cow raised at each household were found to be related.

The calf is related to both, as the female cows are related.

The confused court opted for a Solomonic decision: each household should take half a calf.

Specifically, the court ordered that the calf be appraised, sold and its value divided between the feuding families. Ironically, the calf was valued at half the price of the DNA testing, which cost about VNĐ5,000,000 (US$223.5).

The scent of a thief

Lý Văn Hải was an unlucky thief.

On Monday night, he was found hiding under a bed waiting for an opportunity to rob Phùng Duy Bảo, owner of the Bảo Thúy Jewelery shop in Tuyên Quang province’s Hàm Yên District. But Bao always checks all the rooms in the house before going to bed.

That evening he picked up a strange smell in the vacant room of his daughter who was away studying. Looking under the bed,  Bảo saw the intruder and screamed for help.

Initial investigation by police has found that he decided to break into the jewelery shop by cutting an iron grill on the 3^rd floor of the building and hid under the bed.

Sticky-fingered wedding guest

Vietnamese often say “Đi đêm lắm có ngày gặp ma” - one who does evil will be faced with plague.

This saying proved apt in the case of a wedding crasher named Kiều Phước Sơn, who lives in the central City of Đà Nẵng’s Cẩm Lệ District.

Ngô T.H was attending a wedding in Hải Châu District’s Hòa Cường Bắc Ward on May 22 and after the party was over discovered that VNĐ18 million (US$803) was missing from her purse. The next day, she informed the police about the incident.

Suspicion focused on a man aged between 32 to 35 who was sitting at the same table with H. and four of her colleagues.

H. noticed that the man focused on eating and did not talk to other guests.

She left her purse on the chair while going around and chatting with party-goers.

Upon interviewing the bride and groom, police found that the man was not among those invited.

The bride and groom also provided police with two pictures of the man caught on camera.

This was not the first such case that police investigated. Thefts had occurred at many weddings in the same ward.

Then on May 25, a working group of Hòa Cường Bắc Ward Police located a man who fit the description of the wedding thief - at a school-year closing ceremony of a kindergarten.

While the young man was attempting to steal a wallet from a woman’s bag, police swooped in and handcuffed the suspect.

The man confessed to stealing the money from H and police believe he is tied to five other cases, having found him carrying a number of identity cards, ATM cards and other documents. -- VNS