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2.09.2018

Awesome amateur sketch helps police identify theft suspect

Hung Phuoc Nguyen is wanted on two counts of theft by unlawful taking.



An amateur hand-drawn sketch helped investigators identify a suspect accused of theft at a Pennsylvania farmers market. Take a good look at that sketch, then look at the suspect's mug shot. I know. Awesome.

According to police, Hung Phuoc Nguyen pretended to be an employee at a stand inside Central Market in Lancaster. When an actual employee stepped away, Nguyen took cash from a customer then ran off.

A witness provided a rough sketch -- really rough sketch -- of the suspect to officers. The drawing, along with the physical description, somehow helped remind investigators of a potential suspect.



In a bulletin, Lancaster police acknowledged that the sketch was "cartoonish," but it was effective.

"While the sketch provided by the witness may have appeared amateurish and cartoonish, it, along with the distinctive physical descriptors, jogged the memory of at least one investigator to provide a potential suspect name," the police bulletin read. In other words, they're serious, this is not a joke, the drawing worked.

First, you have to laugh. Then, you have to admit, the drawing does kind of look like him.

Nguyen, 44, is wanted on two counts of theft by unlawful taking.

More here: Police: Description, sketch led to arrest warrant for man accused of Central Market theft