JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office is warning residents about a pattern of thefts targeting sellers on Facebook Marketplace after 12 dirt bikes were stolen in nine weeks using the same method.<\/p>\n
In each case, a prospective buyer contacted sellers through the platform, arranged a meeting, then asked to take a test ride before paying, and drove off with the bike.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re stealing dirt bikes (or anything else) from people on Facebook Marketplace, we won\u2019t let you get away with it,\u201d JSO said in a public statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Investigators are urging anyone selling items online to take several precautions<\/a>. Sellers should refuse to allow test drives before receiving payment, avoid secluded meeting locations, and document interactions by screenshotting messages and photographing the buyer at the meetup.<\/p>\n The Sheriff\u2019s Office noted that its six district substations<\/a> and the Police Memorial Building in downtown Jacksonville are available as safe transaction sites. <\/p>\n Officials said a buyer\u2019s reluctance to meet at a substation should be treated as a warning sign.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n The agency emphasized the guidance applies to all online sales transactions. Anyone who experiences theft during an online sale is encouraged to contact the Sheriff\u2019s Office directly.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office is warning residents about a pattern of thefts targeting sellers on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-308346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}