Craigslist `buyers' arrived with guns

When a Pasadena man accompanied a friend to a Pearland park Sunday afternoon to meet a prospective buyer for shoes placed on Craigslist, they found themselves facing men with guns.
The owner of the shoes, a 21-year-old Houston man, told Pearland police investigators that he brought seven pairs of Nike collectible footwear to a park in the Southern Trails subdivision to meet a supposed buyer about 5:30 p.m. The victim was accompanied by the friend from Pasadena and two men from Houston.
A man exited a vehicle and approached the four. When he began to collect the shoes, the seller demanded payment.
That's when the "buyer" raised his shirt to display a handgun, Pearland police Sgt. Onesimo Lopez said. Two other men in the vehicle also got out and displayed handguns, while a fourth man collected the Nikes, police said.
The suspects then drove away in the vehicle.
The park, which is in the 3300 block of Southern Trails Drive, is an unusual location for a robbery, Lopez said.
It appears to be random meeting place, and an unusual one at that," Lopez said. Anyone looking to sell property on Craigslist should consider the location of the property exchange and really think and use their head more.
They need to find someplace that's public, where there's a lot of witnesses around," he said. Maybe a mall would have been be better."
Craigslist has its own cautions for sellers.
Investigators are working some good leads and detectives are following up to try to make an arrest," Lopez said.
With the explosion of craigslist as a popular site to buy and sell goods and services, criminals have also found a convenient place to prey on victims. Check out this article in the Los Angeles Times.
robert.stanton@chron.com