A young Vietnamese woman recently shocked police after admitting that she had paid someone to cut off her left hand and foot, so she could claim a health insurance payoff of roughly $180,000.

The extreme insurance scam reportedly began in May, when a 30-year-old woman named only as Ly Thi N convinced an acquaintance to cut of her left arm and foot in exchange for 50 million dong ($2,200). The plan was to make it look like she had been hit by a train, so the cold-blooded accomplice, named as Doan Van D, acted like a bystander who just happened to find her injured near a railroad in Hanoi. He was the one who called an ambulance and notified the police about the “accident”.

Ly Thi N was found lying in the ground with a severed hand and leg, and the woman told police that she had wandering near the railway track when a train passed by and dragged her under it. Doan Van D, who she described as a total stranger, just happened to pass by and ended up saving her life. At first, everyone thought that the victim was lucky to be alive, but policemen investigating the accident became suspicious after learning that the woman and the 21-year-old who allegedly found her by accident actually knew each other quite well.

Ly Thy N (Vietnamese Police Photo)

Digging even deeper, investigators found that Ly Thi N’s business was struggling and she had bought a very large health insurance policy just before the terrible accident. Confronted with the facts, the desperate woman reportedly admitted to having paid Doan Van D 50 million dong to sever her limbs in order to claim the insurance payoff of $180,000.

Unfortunately for Ly Thi N, she has now lost both her limbs and 50 million dong, but will not be able to claim her insurance policy. On the bright side – if we can even call it that – police have decided to drop all criminal charges against the two scammers, having decided that the woman’s disability is punishment enough. However, according to Le Van Luan, of the Hanoi Bar Association, the reason for their leniency may be a little different. “We need a new article for this kind of fraud,” he told the BBC. “Her self-harm is horrible and extremely rare.”

Doan Van D (Vietnamese Police Photo)

Vietnamese news site Thanhnien News reports that doctors had tried to re-attach the woman’s severed limbs, but they had to be removed after just four days because gangrene had set in.