By: Sharon Aron Baron
In April of 2014, two men posing as sellers attempted to rob a man during a Craigslist transaction in a Coral Springs parking lot. After the buyer was held up at gunpoint, he pulled out his own weapon and and killed one of the sellers in self-defense.
Coral Springs Police are now encouraging residents that are buying or selling items on Craigslist to utilize the facilities of the police department lobby or parking lot which are under video surveillance and operational 24 hours a day.
Coral Springs Police Community Involvement Coordinator Lynne Martzall said that she worked on this during her career with the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
“In February 2012, after some violent Craigslist robberies in BSO jurisdictions, I was asked to gear Sheriff Lamberti’s message towards the crime trend – buyer and seller beware, requesting Craigslist users to use BSO locations for transactions,” said Martzall.
She said it is safe to believe that if the deadly transaction would have happened in a police department lobby, it would not have occurred. This resulted in the request to have Coral Springs Police Department turned into a “Safe Zone” which was approved, and then shared on their Facebook and Twitter sites.
“So for transactions with smaller items inside is best. Obviously larger transactions for items such as cars, tools, etc., the parking lot is best, which is also monitored.”
The obvious idea is that criminals will not come to a police department if they plan on robbing someone she said.
Martzall said that she will be going to work with City Marketing for signage for the lobby in the next few weeks.
The Coral Springs Police Department is located at 2801 Coral Springs Dr, Coral Springs, FL 33065.
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- Editor of Talk Media and writer for Coral Springs Talk. CST was created in 2012 to provide News, Views, and Entertainment for the residents of Coral Springs and the rest of South Florida.
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5 comments
Where exactly is it ? I thought the police parking lot had a gate around it…. is it outside the gate or do you need to be buzzed in ?
Inside the gate: employees Outside the gate: is where you park
So how do I get to the lobby ? park outside gate and then ask to be ‘ buzzed in ‘ ?
Just walk in: Open to public Public Parking is located on West side of building. Locked parking for employees is located on south side. You enter through west side of building. Forget about that “gate”.
Great move by the Police Chief and all involved in getting this approved! Craig’s list is a great help to sell on, and I have a swing set that is being sold as we speak. If I only knew I could trust the people that were coming, since it is too big to bring to City Hall. Why not extend this courtesy to allowing a patrolling officer to stop by for initial visit instead of me having to strap on a weapon.