PD Setting Up Safe Location To Buy/Sell Items

(WHBC) – Canton police say to use caution when meeting up with a stranger you met online to buy or sell something.

“It’s a pretty simple way to victimize someone,” said Lt. Dennis Garren.

“You don’t really have to be who you say you are on social media or any of these type of apps.”

And that’s why the police department is in the process of setting up a safe location where people can meet up to buy and sell items.

In the meantime, Lt. Garren says people are welcome to use the police department lobby to complete a transaction.

“I believe that if someone is up to no good, just the fact that the meeting is at the police department would probably keep them from showing up.”

If agreeing to meet someone, he says always make sure it’s a public, well-lit location with plenty of foot traffic and security cameras.

He says police get reports periodically of people getting robbed when they show up to complete a transaction with someone they met online.

A few weeks ago in Columbus, a man was shot to death and robbed when he met up with a stranger to buy something they were selling that he saw posted online.