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ROCKY RIVER, Ohio — Two boys were robbed Sunday in the parking lot of the Rocky River Mitchell’s Ice Cream after they brokered a deal to sell clothing to two men through a popular classified ad application.
Neither of the boys were hurt in the robbery that happened just before 5:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the popular ice cream shop located on Detroit Road between Linda Street and Allen Court, the Rocky River Police Department said.
The boy’s ages are not being released at this time, a dispatcher said.
The victims used OfferUp to sell clothing and agreed to meet someone at Mitchell’s to complete the sale, police said.
The two men they agreed to meet instead snatched the bag with the clothing inside and ran west toward a Detroit Road CVS, police said.
One of the victims gave chase but stopped after one of the men implied that he had a handgun.
The unsolved robbery is one of a handful of similar incidents that happened in Northeast Ohio involving transactions set up through online channels.
Someone fired shots during a January robbery in Akron arranged through OfferUp. That came just days after a similar incident in Akron involving a sale arranged through Instagram. In that robbery, three teens took a 16-year-old’s shoes, then intimated that they had guns in their pockets, police said.
Other Northeast Ohio residents reported robberies involving people they met through online marketplaces such as OfferUp and Craigslist.
In response, some area police departments have designated their stations as “transaction safe zones” where buyers can arrange to meet sellers.
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