Two men and one woman are facing a total of 30 charges in connection to a string of Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace thefts that took place across Edmonton between February and early March.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Edmonton Police Service issued a warning in a news release of a series of robberies that involved high-priced items such as Apple iPhone and computers during meetups between people through Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace.<\/p>\n
In each incident, a suspect posting as a buyer meets with a seller, evaluates the item or items for sale, and then proceeds to rob\u00a0 the seller of the item, said police in a news release on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Police said the suspect often uses bear spray, utters threats or presents a firearm, and sometimes the robbery involves more than one suspect. People have also been known to sell fake iPhones to buyers and use counterfeit money.<\/p>\n
Late last month, the EPS patrol and investigative response team arrested three people in relation to eight separate incidents.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 31, three teen boys were arrested and charged<\/a> with theft under $5,000 in one of the first reported incidents.<\/p>\n Police said since mid-December officers have received 53 reports of these incidents, and a big portion of the robberies took place in the Hillview and Richfield neighbourhoods, which are both located in Mill Woods, but investigators warn that these incidents are occurring all across the city, and are being committed by multiple people, and they\u2019re not always connected.<\/p>\n Police are warning people to be vigilant when arranging online sales meetups and to always suggest meeting during the day at one of the EPS buy and sell exchange zones.<\/p>\n Police say it\u2019s important to always ask for photo ID and take a photo of it for reference.<\/p>\n Take screenshots of the ads, as well as the ID number and always get the seller or buyer\u2019s contact information.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a buyer, police said it\u2019s important not to disclose to the seller how you will be paying. If they become aware that you may be arriving with a large sum of cash, it becomes an opportunity for a personal robbery to take place.<\/p>\n In relation to these incidents, police have charged Cody Bear, 18, with 23 offences, including five counts of robbery, two counts of attempted robbery and five counts of possession of a weapon.<\/p>\n Delvoi Sadiki, 19 is facing six charges, including two counts of robbery, two counts of assault with a weapon and two counts of disguise with intent.<\/p>\n Arianna Mejia, 19, is charged with one count of robbery.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are pleased to share that we have made some arrests in relation to these incidents and want Edmontonians to know that we continue to diligently investigate these offences,\u201d said Staff Sgt. Eric Stewart, with the EPS investigative response team, in a release.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are buying or selling items on online platforms, remember to put your safety first and trust your instincts. If something feels off at any point, it probably is and it\u2019s best to abandon the transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n jhills@postmedia.com<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters<\/a>.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post, and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two men and one woman are facing a total of 30 charges in connection to a string of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752,194336,2096,199201],"class_list":{"0":"post-577111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton","11":"tag-edmonton-police","12":"tag-facebook","13":"tag-kijiji"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}