Man Remains Shaken After Being Robbed At Gunpoint While Thinking He Was Going To Sell A Phone Through Facebook Marketplace
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A man was robbed at gunpoint after he thought he was meeting a buyer through Facebook Marketplace, and it was all caught on camera.
As CBS 2's Marissa Parra uncovered, the man was not the only online seller who has been targeted.
Mohammed "Fahad" Adil tried to sell his phone online. He got robbed at gunpoint instead.
"My family is worried," Adil said. "They're getting nervous to go outside our home."
It started on Facebook Marketplace. Adil got interest when he listed his phone.
"I'm thinking that, you know, it's genuine," he said.
Adil thought he did his research – talking to the "buyer" over the phone and asking to meet somewhere like a police station.
"This lady mentioned she worked at elementary school and that she is disabled, and she won't be able to drive," he said.
But that was actually the trap. Adil felt bad, and decided to come to the woman in South Chicago.
But when he showed up to the 8000 block of South Chappel Avenue, she was nowhere to be seen. She claimed she was sending her fiancé.
Within seconds, it was a scene of horror.
Adil: "I was interacting with that person - somebody else came from my back and pointed a gun towards my head"
Parra: "Did you feel it?"
Adil: "Yeah, I literally feel it, and I'm like, 'What's going on?' And he's like, 'Shut up. Just give up all your stuff!'"
The robbery was captured through the cameras on Adil's Tesla. The two conmen took both of his phones, including the one he was trying to sell, before taking off.
It would not be the first time. At least six people selling items through social media have been robbed since September – all within a one-block radius in South Chicago.
"They were literally professionals," Adil said.
The other heists do not surprise Adil. But the memory of his own still has him shaken.
"I never expected this to happen in the United States," Adil said.
He wants his lesson to be a cautionary tale for other Chicagoans meeting through Marketplace.
"In the future, I will be very much careful dealing with strangers," Adil said. "I'm so lucky to be alive."
Unlike with most crimes, Adil was able to provide police with footage of the thieves. But those high-tech cameras on his Tesla have not helped him yet.
We reached out to Chicago Police about his case. There has not been an update.
