Data report
Robbed at the meetup
Two years of buy and sell crime in US news, October 12, 2024 to October 12, 2026.
We read 669 US news stories from 326 outlets. They cover 272 separate crimes where someone was robbed, attacked or killed while meeting a stranger to buy or sell something they found online. 28 people died.
These are crimes that made the news. Police see far more, so treat every number here as a floor.
The 5 facts that matter most
- 272 meetup crimes in 201 cities, 38 states and DC. 163 of those cities had one crime each, so this happens almost everywhere.
- 28 people were killed at 27 meetups.
- 7 in 10 involved a gun. In 189 of the 272 crimes, the robber had a gun, fired one, or the crime was an armed robbery.
- Sellers get hit 3 times as often as buyers. Where we know who was robbed, 150 were sellers and 45 were buyers. Most often, someone poses as a buyer and shows up with a gun instead of cash.
- Small, pricey things are the bait. Where the item is known (197 crimes), 87 were phones, watches and jewelry, laptops and tablets, or game consoles. Add sneakers and designer clothes and it's 115.
Where it happened
Cities with 3 or more separate crimes:
| City | Crimes |
|---|---|
| Chicago, Illinois | 10 |
| Houston, Texas | 9 |
| Atlanta, Georgia | 4 |
| Baton Rouge, Louisiana | 4 |
| Memphis, Tennessee | 4 |
| San Antonio, Texas | 4 |
| South Bend, Indiana | 4 |
| Des Moines, Iowa | 3 |
| Milwaukee, Wisconsin | 3 |
| Murfreesboro, Tennessee | 3 |
| New Haven, Connecticut | 3 |
| New York, New York | 3 |
| Washington, D.C. | 3 |
The states with the most crimes:
| State | Crimes |
|---|---|
| Texas | 30 |
| Florida | 22 |
| Illinois | 20 |
| California | 15 |
| Georgia | 13 |
| Pennsylvania | 13 |
| Tennessee | 13 |
| New York | 11 |
| North Carolina | 10 |
| Ohio | 9 |
| Connecticut | 9 |
What was being sold
| Item | Crimes |
|---|---|
| Jewelry and watches | 34 |
| Sneakers and clothes | 28 |
| Cars and trucks | 25 |
| Robbery sprees (one crew, many victims, many items) | 24 |
| Phones | 20 |
| Game consoles (mostly PS5) | 20 |
| Laptops and tablets | 13 |
| Bikes and e-bikes | 7 |
| Guns (private sales) | 7 |
| Motorcycles and dirt bikes | 6 |
| Camera, tools, other | 13 |
| Not stated in the story | 75 |
Which app the deal started on
| App | Crimes |
|---|---|
| Facebook Marketplace | 189 |
| OfferUp | 10 |
| Craigslist | 3 |
| Instagram or Snapchat | 2 |
| Another app or site | 10 |
| Not stated | 58 |
Where the story names the app, it's Facebook Marketplace 88% of the time (189 of 214). That matches where people buy and sell now. These numbers can't show whether Marketplace is less safe than the other apps.
Over time
The last 12 full months (October 2025 to September 2026) had 170 crimes. The 12 before that had 98. News search finds newer stories more easily, so some of that rise comes from the search itself.
How we counted
- Search. We ran 89 Google News searches: each app with words like robbed, shot, killed and at gunpoint, plus item searches like "Marketplace iPhone robbed". Each one ran across eight 3-month windows, for 4,323 hits.
- First cut. We kept headlines that mention a sale and a crime, dropped outlets outside the US, and fetched each story for its text and byline. 805 were left.
- Reading. We read and labeled all 805: is it a real US crime at a meetup set up online, and if so where, what item, which app, and who got hurt. We dropped 136: scams with no violence, stories from other countries, safety tips with no real case, and one shooting the sheriff later said was not a Marketplace deal.
- One crime, many stories. We grouped stories about the same crime by city, item and date (within 60 days), then checked every deadly case by hand.
- Court stories. 23 crimes show up only as a plea, a sentence or a verdict, with no crime date. 4 more happened before the window. They are left out of every count above.
What this can't tell you
- News covers a small share of these crimes. A robbery with no injury often never makes the paper.
- For about 1 in 3 stories we had only the headline, because the page blocked us or had no text. For those, the city is our best reading of the outlet's home market.
- The item is missing for 75 crimes, and who was robbed is missing for 74.
Using these numbers
Reporters and researchers may use these numbers. Please link to this page.
Or skip the meetup
Already found a buyer on Marketplace, Craigslist, OfferUp or in a group chat? Finish the sale with Vessel, and a courier carries the item for you.
Make a link. Add your item and your price on Vessel. You get a link to send.
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After delivery, the buyer has 3 hours to check it. If they send it back, a courier brings it back to you. After 3 hours the sale is final.
You're paid as soon as the buyer keeps it. If they say nothing, you're paid automatically when their 3 hours end.
You pay no fee on the item. You choose how much of the delivery you cover, from none of it to all of it.
Vessel works in every state. Before anyone pays, we check that a courier can make the trip.
You can do it all in your web browser. You'll add your bank once, before your first sale.
Buying? Send the seller an offer link.