Cops fishing for victims of Surrey cell phone robber

SURREY — Surrey Mounties are searching for more victims, if any, related to a series of online classified ad robberies.

Police recently arrested a man, whose name they haven’t released, in connection with multiple cases were victims were robbed while trying to sell their cellular phones after using an online classified advertisement.

“We believe this suspect may have committed other similar robberies that have not been reported,” said Cpl. Scotty Schumann. “We are appealing to members of the public to come forward if they have been victimized so we can hold this person accountable for all of his alleged crimes.”

The suspect is black, five feet 10 inches tall, 161 pounds and has brown eyes, short black hair and an athletic build. He was released from custody on strict conditions pending charge approval for robbery and theft.

Schumann said the suspect was arrested on May 28. Police allege he was responding to local online advertisements and would arrange to buy the cell phones in the 11400-block of 139^th Street, saying the phone would be a gift and he couldn’t to the deal at home because that would wreck the surprise.

“While inspecting the phone, the robber would rob the seller using a weapon,” and then run away, Schumann said. “In some cases once the phone was handed to him he simply ran away with the phone.”

If there are any more victims out there, or people with information about this guy, police ask them to contact the Surrey RCMP at 604-599-0502 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

tom.zytaruk@thenownewspaper.com