Police: Craigslist Crook Beat & Robbed S. Fla Man
MIAMI GARDENS (CBS4) - A South Florida man who was beaten and robbed now has a warning for you.
The man only wants to be known as "Paul" and regularly buys gold using the website Craigslist, but this time, the person on the other end of the screen was a crook with a gun.
"When he hit me with it, it could've been a lot worse," Paul told CBS4's Gio Benitez.
After Paul posted an ad, a man called him saying he had a gold chain and would sell it to Paul if they'd meet at a Miami Gardens house.
A residential neighborhood is exactly the kind of place where police say you shouldn't conduct any business.
"So as he's walking towards me, he pulls out the chain in his left hand, I look down at it, and the next thing I know, I get hit with the butt of a gun," said Paul.
Paul says the man demanded money.
"I heard the click of the gun, and I didn't want to hear the next click," said Paul.
So he gave the man his cash and more.
"About 1500 and a nice heavy chain," said Paul.
Police say there have been several crimes like this in South Florida in just the past few weeks, not to mention one where a Craigslist criminal shot a U.S. Marine as he was trying to sell a necklace right before Christmas.
"If you're going to do this, if there's a necessity to do this, do it in a public place like in a restaurant or mall," said Captain Ralph Suarez of Miami Gardens Police.
"Cause this is what happens," said Paul.
In Paul's incident, the gun-toting crook got away and is still on the run.
