Two suspects have been arrested after kidnapping a Florida man while meeting him for a Facebook Marketplace deal, police say.
The alleged incident happened on October 9, weeks after the victim had bought a phone from one of the two men in late September. When the victim was contacted with an offer to purchase more phones, he met the seller at his apartment complex in Doral, the city’s chief of police, Matthew Castillo, told CBS News Miami.
“When our victim met him downstairs at the apartment, when he went to the front passenger door to get in the car to do the transaction, he noticed someone was in the backseat, hiding, armed with a firearm,” Castillo said.
The armed man pointed a gun at the victim and ordered him to get into the white BMW and to hand over his belongings, an arrest report obtained by NBC 6 states.
As the car drove away, the victim managed to open the passenger door - only to be grabbed and dragged back inside the car. Then, the victim heard one of the men racking their gun.
Eventually, the victim decided to use his satchel, which was filled with around $4,000 in cash, to escape.
“He actually used his own cash, threw it out the window to distract the person in the backseat, and that's how he was able to escape,” Castillo told CBS News Miami.
The victim gave police detectives the seller’s phone number, who identified the suspect as 31-year-old Lazaro Nunez-Martinez.
Investigators soon launched an investigation using security footage obtained by Local10 that captured the white BMW moments before the alleged crime.
Nunez-Martinez was arrested Sunday after he was spotted on the Florida Turnpike, the arrest report reviewed by NBC 6 states.
According to jail records reviewed by The Independent, he has been charged with grand theft, tampering, armed robbery and kidnapping with a weapon. He was denied bond by a judge.
Thirty-nine-year-old Darian Ernesto Morejon-Rodriguez, the second suspect, was arrested Monday in Hallandale Beach, according to the arrest report. Jail records state that he faces the same charges as Nunez-Martinez.
Now, Doral police are warning people against sharing their personal information online and to complete online transactions in secure meeting locations.
“And if you do a transaction with a stranger, you can use our police station lobby,” Castillo told CBS News Miami. “A lot of police stations, a lot of municipalities offer that as a safe space to do a transaction, where it's secure.”
