*LOCAL* Craigslist transaction goes bad @ Oakridge Mall
 

Vancouver



A private online sale went very publicly sour Monday afternoon when the buyer pepper-sprayed the seller and fled with the item without paying.

The incident resulted in the temporary closure of the Oakridge Mall food court, where the transaction had been set up to take place.

The seller, a 27-year-old Vancouver man, and two bystanders were hit by the spray just after 3 p.m.

Police wouldn’t describe the item or say on which website the two agreed to the sale.

The three victims were treated by paramedics at the scene and released, according to a police media release.

No one is in custody and police are still investigating.

Police are asking anyone with information to phone CrimeStoppers at 1 (800) 222-8477.



Read more: Vancouver



pretty gutsy to rob someone at a mall with pepper spray...so watch out everyone and be leary when selling your stuff!

how stupid must you be to rob someone in a mall with security cams everywhere?

VANCOUVER SUN Head line: Vancouver’s Oakridge Mall shut down after Craigslist transactionturns into pepper spray robbery
could've been kijiji #justsayin

damn must've been another CA or them ed hardy crap again

police try to hide it but the newspaper does its best to find a leak and publishes what they want. havent u ever watched the wire fool?!

Apparently pretty fucking stupid.Just a matter of time before this dumbfuck gets caught.

At this point, he's ballsy. Not until he's caught, is he stupid.

Man, the seller did everything right... met in a public place and everything. Still got robbed. :(

I have made plenty of transactions on CL,buying and selling.I always meet in a mall parking lot during the day or on a weekend.I own 3 pitbulls and I always bring meanest one and let the person I'm dealing with see I have it sitting in the car.

is it just me or is vancouver's crime rate on the rise? first it were the cellphone grab n run and now this?

Thats really unfortunate. Kinda worries me because I do a lot of buying and selling of various goods some really pricey some not but it would be amusing if someone tried to do that to me in a public area while selling them a hatch or other misc car part haha... Lets see them get away with that!! My guess is it was something small and valuable. But not entirely surprised I've met some major idiots on there, one guy accused me of being a car theif cuz I didn't know the accident history of one of my cars and my name resembled a theifs, (not even the same name just some same letters)

I probably wouldn't have seen it coming either, but I try my best to scope out of the area and person I'm going to be meeting. Depending on the value of what I'm selling/buying, I'll probably bring a friend with me. I've had a few situations where the guy sounded sketchy as fuck, so I would just back out of meeting him. Based on the article, it sounded like he did everything right except maybe show up with a buddy or something.

What happened to the seller is definitely unfortunate, but the reality is that it's still safe to sell things via Craigslist, Kijiji, etc.

I've sold and bought a few things via Craigslist over the years and I've found roommates using Craigslist. You really need to use your judgement whenever you sell things privately. You know what are my giveaways?

- Poor grammar in the initial email message
- Bad phone manner
- Calling an inopportune/non-sensible times

And more often than not, if you take the time to compose an ad that is written properly, with a proper description, and a fair price, you'll keep away the scammers and sketchy people.

my favorite is getting an email inquiry from the nigerian prince.

blenz in richmond is best.

Sit outside.

Sit on the outside part of the fence. Have the person Sit inside. Sit side by side.

He isn't going anywhere if he's gonna jack your shit.

Shit just happens sometimes.
I wouldn't use one (or a few) bad examples to label crime rate going up or CL transaction as being dangerous.
I've personally used CL at least 25 times and never had any problems ever. Not even flaking.

At the very least in this case, he got robbed where there's security cameras all over,
vs somewhere dark in a back alley where he would then be SOL.

Reminds me of the ipad thing at Landsdown.

These things get kind of out of hand. I understand you don't want someone coming back to break into your house or anything but I barely meet people out of my way.

Whenever I sell a item, I'll let the buyer come to my home. Unless we agree I live too far away, then it's a typical spot (restaurant parking lot/mall) in the middle.

I've never been ripped off, and if I did get ripped off at my house. You definately wouldn't be walking/driving/crawling away. :joy:

Is it me or is Oakridge really getting poor reputation from robberies, shootings, and this random shit?

I've sold/bought some stuff off CL and there are some details you gotta realize before you meet up with the person if its an expensive good. Some people listed some above, but for me, I like to google their email and see if anything pops up, usually its a good indicator if you find something about their email. I also put it into FB and see if a profile pops up. If it's some asian guy with his shirt off and has dragon tattoos while holding a machete(:denied:), I know i'm not gonna proceed with this transaction unless its in front of a police station or if its some cheap item.

I usually meet buyers or sellers at a really crowded place/corner where it's hard for them to get away, I find Metrotown is a pre good location, like, infront of Sportchek or something or at the food court. Althought having this incident happen at a foodcourt is ballsy lol. Pretty sure they will get 100% caught due to all the cameras an witnesses..

Hope this helps! :thumbs:

Yeah I tend to do some stalking and find out who the person is to be safe. I tend to trust people more if they sell something on RevScene because most of the members are genuine people and not some total stranger who could be psychopathic. Why can't the police disclose what the item was? Was it drugs or what lol. :suspicious:

I can't wait to rob you.

another ipad sale gone wrong

Wow, you guys really go in depth before selling an item. I guess either I trust people too easily or the items I sold were not valuable enough for them to pull this on me.

this happened to a couiple people i know, in exaclty this way in the lower mainland within the last year or two, a 7000$ procharger was stolen from my friend from a brown guy driving a mustang, walked up to him, maced him and left, people suck..

yeah i would just make em go into my car... good luck macing us both inside :lol

this is a no no, i would never let anyone come to my house for an item.. if its a big item, i rather sell to friends of family at a steeper loss...