Starting in June 2011, Hong’s cousin Oanh cried almost every day when she looked at me, and Hong would say that she is having problems with her family and that it wasn’t about me. One time in early July 2011, I was going to go to a 4-star hotel with the $50,000 US I still had in Vietnam because I could sense they were going to attack soon. Hong left the house with our son when I was sleeping and wouldn’t tell me where she was.
As I was getting ready to leave, Co Hai, the Nanny, and Hong’s cousin Oanh told me not to go and had tears in their eyes. I asked Oanh if guys were waiting for me outside, to which she replied, “Yes.” I said how many, and she said “three.” I told her that I could handle that no problem and proceeded to leave with the money as I was chased the entire time by three guys on motorcycles.
Route map showing chase from house to hotel
What I Did for Hong’s Family
I am still amazed at how evil Hong’s family and friends could be. I always smiled and said hello to anybody I made eye contact with and treated Hong and her family like Gold. Here are a few examples:
- Built Hong’s family a house
- Bought all her uncles and her father new motorcycles (9 in all) and bought her father a second motorcycle when the first one got stolen
- Bought her sister a Beauty Salon / Massage Parlor for $5,000 U.S. Dollars
- Financially took care of her entire family, even her uncle’s children
- Bailed her brother out of jail by paying a $1,000 bribe to the police
- Gave Hong’s cousin Kiwi 10 million dong ($500 US) when somebody stole her money in Hanoi
- Paid for half of her sister Tuoi’s Vespa and gave Tuoi an iPhone
- Offered to pay for Hong’s cousin Oanh to go to school and give her money to live on
The Electronics Store Hack
When it came time to scam an American, even large electronics stores quickly jumped in on the plot. In late June 2011, I wanted to buy a new computer since all of mine were hacked, so I went to a huge electronics store near my house that is the size of a city block and six stories high.
I later discovered that they gave me a new computer that they pre-hacked before giving it to me. After choosing the laptop I wanted, I had to wait 45 minutes as they installed Windows, which was a hacked version of Windows 7 that gave them access to my computer at the early boot state before the bios even loads.
I plugged in an external keyboard and used that to type in the bios password. The keyboard I used would do a backspace when you pressed the 4 on the num-pad. I experimented and discovered they had me hacked at the Bios level. When I entered the password differently the second time, the computer blue screened and never turned on again.
The next day I went to buy a MacBook Air without telling Hong. While I was paying, the guy took it to the service desk where I saw several small windows loading as though Windows drivers were being installed, but this was a MacBook, not a Windows computer.
While arguing with the service guy, I realized that I left my bag at the counter and saw a guy getting off the escalator put what looked to be the 3G Wi-Fi Dongle back in my bag.
Better Tracking Than UPS
They knew everywhere I was going to go because Hong would tell them, or they’d hear me talk about it as they eavesdropped. One time I went to make a Police report when Hong wouldn’t tell me where my son was. Even though I called Hong 10 times that day, she didn’t call me until I walked into the Police Station.
Hong’s I.D. with police officer’s notes
July 13th, 2011 – LIES, LIES & More LIES
Before I left Vietnam the first time in July 2011, I went to meet Hong’s supposed ex-friends at a hotel that was 45 minutes away by motorcycle. I could feel something was not right, so I left within 5 minutes. Hong didn’t call me until 5 minutes after I left the hotel, and she was furious on the phone. I then realized that her ex-friends were always her friends and they were trying one last attempt to frame me before I left.
A Rare Tear!
About a week after the coffee shop hacker incident in mid-august 2011, I reflected on the extent of what they planned to do to me on the airplane. I said to Hong, “OMG! I can’t believe people could be so evil; they didn’t care about me, my son, or my family and only cared about their greed.” Hong started crying very hard and wouldn’t stop for ten minutes. She never cried after that day.
Mui Ne Vietnam – 5 hours by motorcycle from HCMC
In September 2011, Hong, my son, the nanny Co Hai, and I moved to Mui Ne, a beach town about 5 hours from HCMC. Hong, out of nowhere, told me to stop at this fruit stand to buy food. The lady there miraculously happened to have a rentable place just up the street that was brand new. I now know that Hong wanted to stop there as part of the plot.
I did become friends with a few westerners when I lived in Mui Ne from September 2011 to December 2011, and both guys warned me that the locals would rally to scam you. After being in Mui Ne for only two weeks, I saw a guy that seemed to be super drunk, and two young Vietnamese Guys were helping him. Hong told me that she almost came to ask me to help the guy because they were scamming him.
The Knife Incident
In early November 2011 in Mui Ne, when I realized Hong was involved, I instantly got into a massive fight with her. She grabbed our son and held a knife to him as she said, “I’ll kill him before I let you take him.” I rushed her and grabbed the knife. Hong screamed something to Co Hai in Vietnamese, and Co Hai left the room. I stepped into the hallway and watched as Co Hai went on the front porch, screamed something in Vietnamese, and then came back in. I realized that she didn’t call the police but screamed for reinforcements.
Satellite map showing motorcycle positions
I decided to go to the hotel down the street but came back ten minutes later and saw four motorcycles with two people on each bike. There were seven guys and one girl, and they parked their motorcycles, one on each corner as shown in the image above.
We ended up leaving Mui Ne for good about a week later. I left for America with my son after being back in HCMC for a week. I can’t tell you how relieved I was the moment the airplane lifted into the air that night at 11:55 PM on December 2nd, 2011 (also my son’s one year birthday).
Time to meet the Devil Himself!