Lakewood police and OfferUp partner for safer buying and selling

The Pacific Northwest has seen how dangerous and disappointing online transactions can be.

Jim Sanders was murdered by four suspects at his Edgewood home in 2010 after posting an expensive ring for sale on Craigslist.

Bellevue-based OfferUp promises a “safer way to buy and sell locally” so a Renton woman tried it – but was scammed when the “buyer” paid her with a fraudulent check.  She asked KIRO 7 not to identify her because her family still doesn’t know she was victimized.

Now OfferUp is working to make such transactions safer by partnering with police departments across the country to provide official MeetUp spots that are under 24/7 video surveillance – including one in Lakewood.

“We don’t want people to have to worry about getting robbed or being the victim of some sort of crime associated with that transaction,” Lt Chris Lawler of the Lakewood Police Department said Thursday.  “We don’t want people to have to worry about giving out a home address” to someone they don’t know.

The Lakewood PD MeetUp spot is now featured in OfferUp’s app as a suggested, safe location for in-person transactions.  Lt Lawler told KIRO 7, if a buyer or seller refuses to meet you in the department’s parking lot “their intention, I think, is to commit a crime.”

An OfferUp spokeswoman said the company has already sent out thousands of free signs to police departments nationwide.

Cox Media Group