Pompano Beach Man Turns Table On Would-Be Craigslist Robber
POMPANO BEACH (CBSMiami) – A Pompano Beach teen who reportedly tried to rob a man selling a phone on Craigslist found out the hard way that it sounds easier to do than it is.
It all started when 25-year old Serkan Demir put an ad on Craigslist offering to sell an unlocked iPhone 4s.
Brandon Hollis, 18, responded to the ad and the two agreed to meet Sunday in the parking lot of Demir's apartment building in the 2800 block of N Palm Aire Drive in Pompano Beach.
"He looked like a college student; he looked like a nice guy," Demir said.
Hollis showed up just after 9:30 a.m. When it came to time pay, however, Hollis reportedly pulled out a gun instead of cash.
Demir said Hollis shoved the gun in his face and demanded money.
"He showed the gun, a small metallic gun," Demir said.
Demir then began to yell to neighbors for help and then wrestled the gun from Hollis.
At that point, a friend helped Demir body slam Hollis to the ground, which is where he stayed on Broward Sheriff's deputies arrived.
"He offered me money, 'you can take it and I'm going to leave," Demir said Hollis told him. "I said, 'I don't need your money from you. I have money. I have everything. I'm going to call the police right now and they're going to take you from here, because you're going to leave from here and you're going to do that for someone."
Hollis roommate said the teen was laid off from his job as a condo maintenance man just two days before the attempted robbery. "He had a job until Friday, " said David Rauch, Hollis' roommate and co-worker. "Maybe that's something that pushed him over the edge or something, ya know," he continued. I know he was trying to buy a car and get ahead of the game like everybody else."
The attempted robbery is the latest in a string of robberies from the online advertising site.
One victim, a Marine, was shot while going after the crooks. No one has been killed in any of the Craigslist robberies.
Hollis has been charged with armed robbery and is in the Broward County Jail with no bond.
