Craigslist gunman robs student trying to sell Paradiso tickets

Do you recognize this Jeep? Gunman in vehicle robbed student trying to sell Paradiso tickets.



SEATTLE -- This weekend's Paradiso Festival at The Gorge is a popular event – and one college student almost ended up getting shot for tickets he had offered for sale.

What happened to Roddy Chung should serve as a warning to everyone: Beware of who you meet when you sell on Craigslist.

“Everything happened so quickly, I didn't know how to react,” Chung said.

Chung had three extra Paradiso tickets to sell so he put them on Craigslist. He told the buyer to meet him outside Hotel Deca in Seattle.

This surveillance video shows his ‘buyers’ driving by in a silver or gray Jeep Grand Cherokee and then turning around to park.

“Waving at me in the car, telling me to come here,” Chung recalled.

Inside the Jeep were four men.

“They were trying to make me give them the tickets, saying, ‘Hey, give me the tickets. I want to see if they are real.'”

Retired Seattle police detective Myrle Carner, of Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound, said: “The victim notices that one of the occupants in the vehicle actually has a gun hid between his legs.”

Chung said, “So this guy immediately steps out of the car, just like pointing the gun at me. 'Hey, give me the tickets, don't (blank) around. Don't (blank), just give me the tickets and give me everything you have.'”

That included his iPhone. You can see the armed robber pushing Chung around; his gun was a silver pistol.

“As soon as I gave him what I had, I just turned and ran,” Chung said.



After the robbery, the men drove off and detectives believe they headed to Everett.

Investigators are hoping someone will recognize the Grand Cherokee and can identify who drives it.

“This activity took place at midnight,” Carner said. “You really shouldn`t be meeting anybody at midnight, specifically in the area where`s there`s not a lot of people around.”

Chung knows he should have been more careful about meeting strangers off Craigslist.

Take another good look at the suspects' Jeep again.

Detectives think the suspect is black, in his mid-20s, about 6-foot-2, with a slim build, and braided hair.

If you know anything that can help Seattle detectives solve this case, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-tips.