GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas — Police are asking the public for help to find three thieves who robbed a young man during the middle of the day in a supposedly safe location — a grocery store.
The robbery, part of which was captured on surveillance video at a Tom Thumb grocery store on South Carrier Parkway, shows the victim leaving the store with two other men he'd met to sell a laptop.
Police say they arranged the meeting on the LetGo app. The victim picked the interior of the grocery store at 3 p.m. as a safe public location.
“He did everything right," said Chelsea Kretz, a Grand Prairie Police Department spokeswoman. "He met in broad daylight at a busy spot. It was a grocery store. And yet these criminals were so brazen that they still convinced him to go outside.”
Police say the men claimed the laptop was for their sister and that she was waiting in the grocery store parking lot and needed to see it in person.
The victim followed the two suspects outside where he said a third suspect wearing a mask pistol-whipped him across the head and face, grabbed the laptop, and ran away.
Just last week, a 15-year-old boy, Luis Carlos Guevara, was killed in Oak Cliff in much the same way. While he waited in a car for someone he was expecting to show up to buy a pair of earbuds, someone shot him. His killer has not been caught.
Most police departments in North Texas have set up "exchange zones" outside police departments where meetings between strangers can be monitored.
Grand Prairie has three such exchange zones:
- One in front of the police department headquarters — the Public Safety Building at 1525 Arkansas Lane.
- A second at the police substation at 5610 Lake Ridge Parkway.
- A third at the Grand Prairie Police Training Center at 310 College Street.
All of the sites are monitored by surveillance cameras 24 hours a day.
And, if people want an extra measure of protection, they can choose to make their property exchanges during normal business hours inside the lobby of the Grand Prairie Police Department Public Safety Building.
“We don’t mind stepping outside and being there with you," Kret said. "But we want to make sure that people are safe. And so while this victim did everything correctly, these criminals were still bold enough to hurt him in public and take his property.”
Police say the suspects in the Grand Prairie robbery fled the grocery store in a dark-colored, four-door sedan.
The suspects are approximately 17 to 20 years old.
People with information to help identify the suspects are asked to call Crimestoppers at 972-988 TIPS (8477). Callers can remain anonymous. You can also report online at gpcrimestoppers.org.
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