Inside the Police Reports: Craigslist Scam, Home Burglary and Car Theft

Each week, Lilburn Patch takes a deeper look into recent crime reports from the Gwinnett and Lilburn police departments.

You Can't Believe Everything on Craigslist: A Lilburn resident, aged 40, called a supposed rental company representative to talk about a home rental listing in Snellville that he had seen on Craigslist. He saw the home and told the representative he wanted to rent it, so the representative told him to meet with his partner "Jonathan" at a Captain D's restaurant on Highway 29. The man met with the partner, signed a printed lease agreement and handed over a$1,350 in cash.

Later, the man went to the rental house and, to his suprise, saw a "For Sale" sign in the yard. After calling the phone number listed on the sign, the homeowner on the phone said that he was the third person to tell him about the scam. The victim had copied the tag number of the partner's car at the restaurant, and a follow-up investigation to look at any survelliance videos at Captain D's has been placed in order. No further details are available at this time.

Expensive Jewelry, Computer Gadgets and a TV: A home on Emily Drive off Arcado Road was burglarized March 21. The homeowner and complainant, a 58-year-old woman, told police that among the items stolen were: a television, a $1,200 HP laptop computer, alcohol, a $636 diamond necklace, a computer printer, a $150 Walkman and a $1,000 diamond ring. Police determined that the suspect(s) must have pried the home's back sliding glass door and exited through the carport.

Lilburn Police spoke with a neighbor, who said that another neighbor across the street from the victim had changed landscape companies recently. The neighbor said that on the day of the burglary, an unmarked truck with a trailer was parked across the victim's house and later changed its position so that the vehicle was on her side of the street.

Police were able to lift fingerprints off of an armoire in the master bedroom, but nothing further is available at this time.

Remember, Keep Your Car Doors Locked: On March 12, a man spoke with police via phone about someone going through his car and stealing his $150 Palm GPS. At 10 p.m. the previous evening, the 66-year-old man had parked his car in the driveway of his home, located on Shagbark Court off Five Forks-Trickum Road, and noticed the GPS missing when he went out to the car around 8 a.m. the following morning. Multiple entering auto incidents were also reported in the neighborhood that same evening.