Residents are warned to be vigilant as police officers appeal for information after two mobile phones were snatched in fake Facebook marketplace sales.
Although this has been reported in Stafford, via the Staffordshire Smart Alert platform, we’re sharing this in Stone as this could easily be replicated over here.
On Wednesday 20th April 2022, police were called at 5.45pm after a man had attended an address off Bodmin Avenue, Stafford.
The offender had agreed to purchase a Samsung S22 plus, worth £1,000, from the occupants via Facebook.
However, on arrival, the man had snatched the phone from the seller and left the scene in a silver VW parked nearby.
The day before, on Tuesday 19th April, a similar theft had been reported at an address near Silverthorn Way, Stafford.
At approximately 2.45pm, the man snatched a mobile phone from the occupant after agreeing a purchase on Facebook.
The offender left the scene in a silver VW and the officers believe both offences may have been committed by the same suspect, who may be using a false account to facilitate the meetings.
The offender is described as white, tall in height, of slim build with a full beard.
He was wearing a black coat and jeans at the time of the incident on Wednesday 20th April.
Anyone with any information or relevant CCTV or dashcam footage of the areas at the time of the thefts are asked to contact us on 101, Facebook or Twitter, quoting incident 595 of 20 April.
Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Following these two incidents, a further theft has occurred from an address in the Holmcroft area on 22/04/2022
The victim had advertised his phone on GUMTREE and a white male fitting the above description attended the address and snatched the phone, the male got into a white/silver old-style VW Passat which had a foreign number plate.
