Buyer and Seller Beware

An increasingly common crime involves criminals posting fake items for sale online to lure unwitting victims to come to a specified location with cash. In this particular story, the intended victim had a permit to carry a firearm, which completely changed the outcome for the would-be criminal.

TwinCities.com reported on March 23 about how 18-year-old Kendrick Johntavious Maddox of Minneapolis arranged a meeting in a parking lot in St. Paul, Minnesota, allegedly to sell an iPhone for $500. The sale was apparently arranged on Facebook, where Maddox went by the screen name “Elo DaGreat” and posted photos of himself holding an iPhone. The 39-year-old “buyer” soon learned that there wasn’t a phone for sale and that Maddox had tricked him. After the victim pulled into the parking lot and met Maddox, Maddox pulled out a gun and demanded the $500 cash. The man complied and handed the money over, but then pulled out his firearm and shot Maddox in the ankle. The injured Maddox ran from the scene, while the victim quickly dialed 911. Maddox was arrested at a nearby medical facility where he went for treatment for the gunshot wound, and was soon charged with first-degree aggravated robbery. St. Paul police spokesman Sergeant Mike Ernster told TwinCities.com that investigators are looking into whether Maddox was involved in other similar crimes. Ernster also said that they’ve seen an increase in this type of robbery.

In an unrelated incident a few days later, a robber shot a man after the two of them met for a planned sale of a cellphone in St. Paul’s Macalester-Groveland area. This “sale” was arranged on Craigslist, but it too was a ruse to rob someone. Unfortunately, the victim was not armed in this case, and the suspect was successful in carrying out the robbery.

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