Deliveryman dies after robbery

Last Thursday, the 59-year-old Methuen resident was delivering food from a restaurant in Lawrence when he responded to a phony order. He was robbed of the food and found unconscious with a fractured skull. He died the following day.

Yesterday, his son recounted Nguyen’s life - a story that includes both an immigrant’s tale and a history lesson.

Phu Nguyen, 24, a recent graduate from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, described a life that consisted almost entirely of work. Thu Nguyen worked to get to this country. He worked to pay for his family to come here. He worked to put two children through college. He worked to buy a house that he was rarely home to enjoy.

Nguyen was a lieutenant in the South Vietnamese Army during the Vietnam War, his son said, serving under his father, who was a colonel. Nguyen met his wife in Ca Mao, on the southern tip of the peninsula.

After the war, the North Vietnamese Army swept through the area, Phu Nguyen said; his father was detained and spent eight years in a prison camp.

Thu Nguyen went to the Philippines after his release and spent several years in a refugee camp before the United States accepted him for immigration.

He came to this country in 1986 and worked various jobs, eventually finding permanent work in the shipping department of New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc. in 1991.

He learned English, worked days at New Balance, and delivered Chinese food at night.

About a decade ago, Nguyen was diagnosed with cancer. He underwent surgery and recovered, his son said.

Age and illness were catching up with him, however. While still working his day job, he had cut back on his nightly deliveries, coming in to help the Evergreen Chinese Restaurant when it was busy and when he was able. He planned to retire from New Balance within the next two years and return to a more peaceful Vietnam, his son said.

But he was working last Thursday night.

A city employee found Nguyen lying on the sidewalk of an Osgood Street housing complex around 8 p.m. The food he was delivering was gone, but his car, wallet, cash, and other food orders remained.

Nguyen was taken to Lawrence General Hospital and later to Tufts Medical Center, where he died Friday of complications from a fractured skull.

Police Chief John J. Romero said police did not know how Nguyen had been injured, whether he was struck or fell.

The robbery appeared to be part of a disturbing trend, Romero said. More than a half-dozen times this year, someone has ordered food using a random address and a prepaid cellphone.

The thief or thieves lie in waiting for the deliveryman to arrive. When he does, they attack him and take the food.

No witnesses have come forward, he said, but police are following promising leads.

“We expect to find the person or persons responsible,’’ he said.

Romero said the death was senseless.

“This is a case of a guy who’s just out there to make money and bring it home to his family,’’ Romero said by phone yesterday. “It’s tragic, just tragic.’’

“It’s an injustice,’’ Phu Nguyen said. “He worked all his life, and he really had no chance to actually enjoy the fruits of his labor. He worked so hard to save every penny, dime. This is so cruel.’’

John M. Guilfoil can be reached at jguilfoil@globe.com.