A Craigslist date went seriously wrong for a 22-year-old Michigan woman when the man she thought she was hooking up with via the want-ad website brutally kidnapped her.
State Police rescued the bound and gagged young female only because, in her struggle to get free from the abductor’s vehicle, she kicked him, causing the car to “drunkenly” swerve.
Troopers say when they pulled the man over for possible intoxication they found his victim zip-tied in the backseat, with duct tape on her mouth and a bag over her head.
Otherwise, she appeared to be unharmed.
The 41-year-old suspect had nefariously lured her to a rural location with a fake Craigslist post and profile which he had as well linked to a virtually untraceable email account.
“The young lady answered the ad on Craigslist. She chatted with the person online and agreed to meet him,” explained Lieutenant David Kaiser. “However, the mistake she made was she met him in a remote, secluded area near his home. She got into his vehicle and once they were moving, she realized this guy looked nothing like the picture that he had sent her. Also, the conversation wasn’t anything like it was online.”
She was kidnapped when she unsuccessfully attempted to terminate the Craigslist date and flee the perpetrator’s vehicle.
At that point “she was assaulted, she was choked, her arms were zip-tied, duct tape was placed over her mouth, a bag was placed over her head, and she was thrown in the backseat of the car,” officer Kaiser said.
Craigslist crimes of every type and intensity are becoming a troubling social media trend. Because of that, police are now warning those using the Internet for any kind of meet-ups to chose public and populated areas.
And, “if a person doesn’t want to meet you in a public place,” advises Lieutenant Kaiser, “that should be your first red flag that nothing good is going to come of this.”
@EponymousRox
