Robbers Using Electronics as Bait on Craigslist

And this is why I use e-bay. You pay extra, but at least you won't have to worry about a black eye.

This is why I always insist on going to the sellers house to pick up whatever they are selling. This way if something is not as "advertised" I know where to go to get my money back.

Isn't it just common sense? If your going to meet up with random people from craigsilist do it somewhere were there is tons of people around. It is still possible that they are bad people but it should make it safer. It is still better then showing up alone in a random parking lot at night. Reminds me of the classic rusty white ran selling candy.

Not surprising I guess. Too bad police didn't go check out the first incident, they could have nabbed the bad guys.

so the moral of this story, use different location.

"Yea, you can find me at this address in the open parking lot, with no lights, next to the abandoned warehouse. I'll be the guy wearing all black with a ski-mask and a gun."

"Alright, see you in about 10 minutes!"

At least the victims in these cases didn't give out their home address and invite the 3 inside where they would have lost a lot more than the cash they had in hand.

If I ever go to buy something in a parking lot in the middle of the night someone should punch me in the face for being such a dumb ass.

No. I'll never let you come to my house. Crooks always find a way. It was suggested some time ago that you should never, ever, for any circumstances invite an interested party from Craigslist to your home. Lets invite crooks to our house, so they can case the place, and rob you blind while you are not at home. So now, it is common practice to meet somewhere, don't invite potential criminals to your home! You definitely want to meet in a public place, preferably somewhere there are many people around, and take people with you for heavens sake. There have also been instances where people were abducted by going to someones home!
Electronics ads will attract many younger people to the home of a predator. You must exercise common sense before you go running off to someones house you do not know. It is a shame it is this way these days, but you just never know about people anymore.
If you are going to use Craigslist, a little common sense and lot of care needs to be taken whether you are buying or selling.

So, the sky is blue?

LOL 15 minutes later? Apparently the cops didn't actually respond to the location/area to search for the bad guys eh?

The Police [and Federal Govt.]Protect Me, I'm not scared.

I have always been cautious about big money deals. I've bought and sold sub $100 items without a problem before though. This is why you have a couple of friends go with you on bigger deals and/or carry a pistol if you have a CHL license. I once sold a built up engine from my house before and had a couple of friends swing in before the buyers showed up. Everything went smooth.

Showing up in the middle of the night to an empty parking lot. With cash. With no protection. And bring the wife. Darwin, meet Craig.

The moral of the story is it's way easy to bait apple fans

As soon as "night" and "parking lot" came up together the victims should have dropped out of the deal.

I usually would just meet over in a close parking lot, or sometimes the guy lives 2-3 hours out so something randomly found on google maps is used.

Then there's the occasions when you sell a basketball goal or a piece of furniture. I can't move that before selling. And it in fact took 3 guys to take it. (well that's how many were there anyway, probably less could have done it)

Worst cops ever if they let another robbery happen 15 minutes later in the same parking lot. So do these robbers have an appointment book for people they're going to rob?

Yeah, these people were dumbasses, no way around it. Smart people meet at a busy location during the day. I've done countless PC hardware, and electronics deals on CL and all that is needed is common sense.

PAYPAL.

If somebody doesn't have a paypal account... they're not legit.

I always think like this. I have been around way too much drama in my life to be suckered into sneaky sales pitches.

Old news. This has been happening since at least 2005. Even the local news stations here ran a few spots warning of this. I had two students (high school) get beat up and robbed by the guys they were trying to buy stuff from. They were even in a busy Walmart parking lot with the lot camera pointing right at them. Walmart refused to release the video since they "were not customers of Walmart and conducting unauthorized transactions on Walmart premises". Cops couldn't do anything about it.

And that is why you carry a gun. Or tazer. something to make them drop to the ground in pain.

People are plain stupid. When I sold my first thing on Craiglist (HTC HD2) made the deal so that it took place in broad daylight at a Panera Bread. I came into the place 1/2 hour early. I parked so that I could see completely around my vehicle. I sat in the middle of the restaurant surrounded by people.... In other words, if you thought you were robbing me, you would have to be the brazen robbery you ever pulled off.
I think "common" sense now needs to be renamed to "spectacular" sense or something that really describes how rare it is for people to actually have and use it (myself included at times!)

1st - Meet them during the day.
2nd - Meet them in a busy location where there would be lots of witnesses. The location I tyically meet people at is at a very busy and crowded, well lit gas station.

Don't meet someone when no-one else is around.

I wonder what its like to be stupid

Stupid is as stupid does.

Newegg rocks!

They are most likely facebook user's. Remember what Zuckerberg said about facebook users.

i'd like them to try this crap on me. i'll have a gun with bullets laying in my car ready to be used, with my firearms license. but before that happens, they can definitely expect a good fight back. boy oh boy would that be fun.

Friends don’t let friends use Craigslist. Reason #105: http://bit.ly/9D9UR6