Police are urging residents to use a portion of the department's parking lot to conduct online sales after a recent Craigslist deal turned violent but resulted in an arrest.
According to a news release, a Waukesha man was robbed at gunpoint around 4:45 p.m. May 10 in the 1800 block of Haymarket Road while trying to sell his iPhone to a buyer he met through the online classifieds website.
The buyer, who was armed with a handgun, ran away after the robbery, the release said, but didn't get very far. Officers and a K9 unit arrived shortly after the incident was called in, and found and arrested the robber who was staying at a home near the location of the sale, according to Waukesha Lt. Kevin Rice.
No one was reported injured in the incident.
The robber, a teenager, is believed to be responsible for other nearby thefts and robberies linked to Craigslist ads, Rice said.
But as of Thursday afternoon, May 12, no criminal charges have been filed against him, according to online court records.
The department used the incident to emphasize the availability of so-called safe lots for online transactions, which in general are areas that are under constant video surveillance. The parking lot of the Waukesha Police Department, 1901 Delafield St., is one such site.
'Citizens are encouraged to use internet safety zones for their Internet purchases to prevent this type of incident from occurring,' Rice said.
The police department has set up an Internet purchase and exchange location in the department parking lot for the 'increased safety of the citizens of Waukesha and surrounding communities,' the release said.