Police say a shooting at a Laurel, Maryland shopping center that left two people injured — one of them a bystander — happened during an online marketplace transaction.
Online local sales through sites like Facebook Marketplace, Offer Up, and Craigslist are on the increase, as more people try to stretch their money by purchasing secondhand.
The shooting happened around noon Sunday next to the Harris Teeter grocery store in the very busy Towne Centre at Laurel on Baltimore Avenue.
“It was something unexpected, and nowadays, it’s crazy,” said one witness.
Laurel police described the victims’ injuries as non-life threatening.
“Our initial investigations indicate that the shooting transpired during some sort of meetup for an online sale, so we have the incident occurred over here, and we have another unrelated victim that was also hit,” said Laura Guenin with Laurel police.
Online selling apps caution purchasers to be very careful about who they choose to buy from. They recommend avoiding sellers who have a blurry photograph, or none at all in their profile. Same goes for a blurry picture of the item listed.
Another red flag: no past listings or just one.
An unbelievably low price should also be a sign to use caution.
Laurel police recommend their station as a safe place to carry out an online transaction. It has a sign out front designating it as a safe exchange zone. The area is monitored by cameras 24 hours a day.
Laurel Police are not alone in their offer to use their premises as a safe exchange space — most police departments offer something similar.
from Local – NBC4 Washington https://ift.tt/DifeZ0C
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