Well said.
Oh I thought he meant he has a gun in his pocket already loaded, secretly pointing at the potential thief from inside the pocket.
Kinda like when Han Solo shot greedo.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Craigslist Robbery
- Thread starter Lifesuxsbad
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Well said.
Oh I thought he meant he has a gun in his pocket already loaded, secretly pointing at the potential thief from inside the pocket.
Kinda like when Han Solo shot greedo.
I live in Washington, bordering Oregon. When I was selling my 3G about a month ago, I requested the buyer to meet me at a Washington Starbucks but he kept insisting to meet in Oregon. I agreed but on the day I had to reschedule the time so I asked him again to come to Washington. He finally told me, guess what, he's on parole, that he's not allowed in Washington State. After pausing on the phone for about 30 seconds, I still went ahead and met him. Turned out to be two guys from Palestine, and actually seemed to be pretty cool guys. After about 15 minutes of examining and testing, I wiped the sweat off my forehead and deal was done. Was an interesting experience for an usually boring Monday. 
How silly of me. I completely overlooked the fact that he WAS Han Solo.
No matter how you cut it, the liklihood of him ending up dead increases exponentially if he were do any of that stupid crap he sees on TV and thinks he can pull off in the real world. He's better off waving his hand in front of the robbers face and saying in a calming tone, "these aren't the phones you're looking for"....
You'd be surprised at what the power of suggestion can achieve...
Criminals are dumb as a rock and I wouldn't be surprised if that worked.
I was looking on CL the other day and someone was selling an iPad "Brand New, just purchased" for a small amount less than they retail for. There were pics of the iPad and a receipt although they weren't clear enough to make out details of the purchaser.
I was suspicious though because the advert demanded Cash only and pick up only in a dodgy part of London. Immediately it struck me that this is a great way of getting someone to come to you that you know is carrying lots of money on them.
What we need is a hybrid of Ebay and CL. Ideally, we could have the feedback system from Ebay but the commission free less regulated and nannying environment of Craigslist....The site could make it's money from advertising and would stand a good chance since folks would be visiting and searching for what they want, giving Google ad sense plenty of info for serving up pertinent ads.
Hate Paypal and the huge slant towards buyers that ebay has these days, but I digress.
I was suspicious though because the advert demanded Cash only and pick up only in a dodgy part of London. Immediately it struck me that this is a great way of getting someone to come to you that you know is carrying lots of money on them.
What we need is a hybrid of Ebay and CL. Ideally, we could have the feedback system from Ebay but the commission free less regulated and nannying environment of Craigslist....The site could make it's money from advertising and would stand a good chance since folks would be visiting and searching for what they want, giving Google ad sense plenty of info for serving up pertinent ads.
Hate Paypal and the huge slant towards buyers that ebay has these days, but I digress.
LOL! It goes without saying that you have no idea what kind of weapon I carry. If you hadn't made assumptions, you'd know that I bought a weapon with the very intention in mind that it could be easily concealed and fired from inside a pocket without snagging on anything(read: snub nose hammerless revolver).
If the situation feels fishy, but not fishy enough for me to bail, you can bet my hand is on the gun from beginning to end.
If, for some reason, I'm caught off guard, (despite the fact my hands are in my pockets 90% of the time I'm standing up), and the criminal opts to demand my wallet(which could be in any of my pockets), the idea of being able to draw and shoot quickly is not that ridiculous.
Nice try though.
I have a friend who was selling an older Mustang on CL, it was in great condition except for the transmission was shot in first and second gear. So he wanted to restore it but didn't have the time, put an ad up explicitly stating the car needed a new transmission. Had a email exchange with a guy. He has a trailer but didn't want to go through the hassle of loading it and taking it to a public place. So he gives the guy the street that he lives on, and says to meet him at an intersection. The night before the meeting, the guy apparently was going house-to-house, holding a flashlight into garage windows to find the Mustang. He breaks into my friend's garage, starts the car (keys left in the ignition), and is in there for 10 or so minutes trying to get the car to go, finally decides to put it in neutral and push it out of the garage. My friend hears, goes downstairs with his pistol, and holds the guy at gunpoint in the street until the cops come.
Pretty wild. CL is very sketchy, at times.
Pretty wild. CL is very sketchy, at times.
No, it's not right for someone to rob another person, but one needs to make safe decisions.
This person did not and paid the price. Reality isn't fair, but it still exists.
If you need a gun in Metro Detroit you are either paranoid, live in the wrong place, or need to check your lifestyle. Hilarious. Gun toting suburbanites crack me up.
Um, doesn't detroit have a really bad reputation for that kind of stuff? Personally, I think it's not paranoid if he lives in Detroit. Really, you can easily find yourself in bad places in any major city without trying too hard.
I'd think you'd have more of a point if you were talking out in some small town.
Note, I'm only remarking on whether it is paranoid to worry enough about that kind of stuff to think about having a gun, not whether the gun will really protect you. I am with the mindset that the gun isn't going to help you unless it's already drawn if the person already has their gun drawn on you. And if I were meeting some one to sell something off craigslist, it would make me very nervous if they kept their hands in their pocket all the time. Now, let's add some one else who also is carrying a gun, sees person not taking hands out of pockets, and gets nervous that that person is about to rob him. Let's just hope some one doesn't get jumpy and decide the other person is robbing them.
I did when the guy bought my car. He thought I was being overly paranoid. I thought so too but rather that than find out he gave me a bunch of fake money.
I live in the UK so even our regular police don't carry guns....when there is the odd shooting here it's usually a big enough deal to make the news. Obviously I'm aware of how vehemently some folks in the US defend their right to carry a gun and although personally I think the whole system makes it more likely someone is going to get shot, it's not my country or culture so it's up to you.
Having said all that, isn't it just better to engineer an exchange somewhere in public where there's CCTV like some people have suggested so as to avoid the need to bring and possibly use a gun in the first place? The moment a gun is drawn there's a much bigger chance it's not going to end well, and at the end of the day it's just stuff.
Having said all that, isn't it just better to engineer an exchange somewhere in public where there's CCTV like some people have suggested so as to avoid the need to bring and possibly use a gun in the first place? The moment a gun is drawn there's a much bigger chance it's not going to end well, and at the end of the day it's just stuff.
I agree, stupid people shouldn't use craigslist. I have done dozens of transactions over craigslist and have NEVER had a problem. Am I lucky? No, I use common sense and never allow people I don't know into my home, and I only do transactions in broad daylight with lots of people around. If I have an expensive transaction (like a computer), I bring a friend, arrive early and have him sit off to the side to keep an eye on things. However, most thief's are NOT brave enough to rob you at a Starbucks in the middle of the day unless they are stupid. It just wouldn't be worth the risk for them.
I have also started allowing postal money orders instead of cash. They are pretty much impossible to forge nowadays.
I think a lot of people are missing the point. The victim of this crime is not to blame. The victim acted in good faith so far as we can tell. The fact that he/she got robbed makes it sound like they made poor choices, but wisdom is perfect only in hindsight.
The only fault of the person who posted the warning on CL is that they mentioned the robbers' race without other obvious identifying features (height, build, clothing, markings, accent, hair type, eye colour etc.).
The only fault of the person who posted the warning on CL is that they mentioned the robbers' race without other obvious identifying features (height, build, clothing, markings, accent, hair type, eye colour etc.).
I love haggling and I do it all the time everywhere. But there comes a point when both parties agree to a price, shake on it and the negotiation is over.
We had haggled back and forth over the tires, he agreed to the final price, I drove my arse all the way out to meet with him, then he pretends not to have all the money. In my book that is dishonest behavior, not haggling.
I don't think anyone here is blaming the victim in so far as they think the victim deserved to get robbed or that it was right for the robbery to take place. There is no question here that the thief is 100% in the wrong and the one committing an ethical and legal offense.
That being said. We live in the real world. We lock our front doors, children know to lock up their bikes. We don't run down the street with 6 $100 bills in hand yelling I've got $600!!
We all know that neglecting to take certain precautions can lead to dishonest people in the world taking advantage of us. Its sad, it shouldn't be this way... but it is.
Anyone who would advertise some item of value on an open internet forum, then meet in a private place with a complete stranger is not taking any precautions. I think that is all people are saying.
Don't make yourself an easy victim.
To the knucklehead with the pistol in his shorts: If you really think that is a good idea to walk into a dangerous situation just because you are armed, then perhaps you need to take a few advanced CCW classes, or visit a forum like defensivecarry.com
Self defense is first and foremost about situational awareness and not putting yourself into a bad situation. 95% of responsible CCW holders I know would never even talk about it...
Anyone bragging about how they are armed and think they can walk into any situation and defend themselves rambo style needs to grow up.
To the English guy: Thanks for being so diplomatic. Many of my european friends are alot more critical of US culture.
But for us the right to bear arms is more important than the danger the right may or not entail. Thanks for being understanding.I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were Steven Segall. My apologies. Now that I have this valuable information, I sincerely hope you try this the next time you get robbed at gunpoint. The gene pool could use some weeding out anyway...
You obviously understand little to nothing about self defense, which makes you as dangerous to yourself as you may be to others.
If you are actually CCW licensed, I suggest you educate yourself. Start with Masaad Ayoob.
Please, Masaad, explain the flaw in my logic in the above post. I'm 100% confident that I understand the principles of self defense, but if I'm wrong, please educate me otherwise.
Okay. Have you been to inkster? South Westland? If so, you'd know that the 'hood' there can get just as bad at Detroit. Unfortunately, I live 5 minutes from there. So no, me being a "gun toting suburbanite" is not hilarious. Additionally, I go to Detroit fairly often. Do you even watch the news? Have you ever done a police ride along or listened to the police scanner for some of the suburbs around here? There's more going on out here than you'd think, and being able to appropriately defend myself is not so ridiculous.