On the evening of August 6, the leader of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism said that after the Department received information that the police had found the cyclo driver who "ripped off" Mr. Oki Toshiyuki for 2.9 million VND for a 5-minute cyclo ride around Saigon, the Department would give Mr. Oki Toshiyuki, 83 years old, living in Tokyo, a pair of round-trip tickets from Vietnam Airlines so that he and his relatives could return to visit Vietnam.
Mr. Oki Toshiyuki is a person who loves Vietnam very much and has special feelings for Ho Chi Minh City. A representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism shared: “It is his voice that has helped us pay more attention to the work of building the image of the City. Through this, we want Mr. Oki Toshiyuki to see the recent incident as an accident and still love our country.”
According to family information, Mr. Oki, his eldest daughter-in-law and two grandchildren came to Ho Chi Minh City to both travel and visit his youngest son who is currently living in Ho Chi Minh City. Mr. Oki stayed at the Liberty Central Saigon Riverside Hotel (Ben Nghe Ward, District 1) on Ton Duc Thang Street.
Before that, on the morning of August 3, 2019, a cyclo driver took the old man from Ben Thanh market to the Liberty Central Saigon Riverside hotel. After that, the old man intended to give the driver 500,000 VND, but the driver wanted to ask for more. While Mr. Toshiyuki was still opening his wallet, the driver reached into his wallet, took all 5 500,000 VND notes and 2 200,000 VND notes, and then left.
Immediately afterwards, the Investigation Police Department of District 1 Police (HCMC) issued a decision to temporarily detain the cyclo driver who "overcharged" the tourist to investigate and clarify the act of "property robbery".
