From time to time, scan your local Police Blotter. Sometimes you find directly useful tips to avoid crime. In other cases, you could try putting yourself into that situation and figuring out what you would do. It’s a tip from Tom Givens… figure out the plays beforehand so you have a script (and one that’s debugged) before it happens to you.

While reading this morning I came across this entry about two men arrested for a Craigslist scam.

Police said victims would see an ad on Craigslist for an iPhone and would contact the seller to meet. All four meetings were set up in a business parking lot between the hours of 10:15 and 11:30 p.m.

Police said Jenkins and Anderson would get the victim to an isolated area in the parking lot and then rob the victim using weapons and physical force.

Business parking lot is good, as it’s a public place and likely well-lit at night. But that’s also a problem: meeting at night. As well, you should stay in a very public part of the lot, not be taken to an isolated area. The blotter entry echos these tips:

Police are advising that people follow the following safety tips when meeting someone to sell or buy something from an online ad: arrange the meeting in very public places with plenty of people around; avoid, at all costs, being directed to an isolated area of a parking lot; attempt to obtain as much identifying information on subject prior to meeting; do not go alone, take people with you; avoid meeting after dark.

All good tips.

Daughter recently sold a collection of toys on Craigslist. The buyer lived in Lockhart, so when we went to arrange details for the transaction I figured it wouldn’t hurt to go to Lockhart — exchange the goods and pick up some awesome BBQ. When I went to arrange the details, we met on a Sunday morning around 10:00 AM in the gravel parking lot of Smitty’s BBQ. That’s a high traffic area, given it’s right on US-183 — the main road through town; plus, it’s Smitty’s on a Sunday, which is going to have the church crowd and the weekend visitors all around. It was for the safety of both the seller and the buyer. Make it as public and safe as possible. All things I pointed out to Daughter. Good things to learn.