ATLANTA — At least a half-dozen people have lost thousands of dollars at gunpoint after answering “car for sale” ads on Craigslist.
Channel 2’s Liz Artz talked to one local victim who says he should have seen the red flags.
Joshua Bassey and his friend couldn’t resist a Craigslist ad for a 2011 Honda Accord listed for only $5,000.
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Too good to be true? Maybe, but the friends thought the catch would be the car's poor condition.
“You know, the engine or something, but we didn’t think it was going to be a robbery,” Bassey said.
He said the next thing they knew, they were staring down the barrel of a gun.
“They had masks on. One had a bandanna covering his face,” he said.
And they’re not the only ones. According to Atlanta police detectives, at least six people have reported a similar incident where they responding to an ad on Craig’s list and, in some cases, were robbed for thousands of dollars.
According to police reports, in three incidents the robbers lured the victims to Hadlock Street in southwest Atlanta. They used the addresses of 1793, 1797 and 1801 where the street dead-ends.
“Two guys came out with guns and said, ‘Give me your money,’” Bassey said.
In three other cases the victims were directed to apartments off Stanton road, only blocks away from Bassey’s robbery.
“I was just shaking, I didn’t know what to do; it was frightening, but I'm just lucky to be alive,” Bassey said.
He told Artz he chased after the robbers, and that’s when they fired several rounds.
“They turned back and shot at us, but luckily we weren’t hit,” he said.
He says from now on, he’ll listen to those instincts.
“If you see a car with a ridiculous price, it might be too good to be true,” he said.
Bassey said the taxi driver they used to get to the location took off when he saw the guns come out.
WSBTV
