Facebook Marketplace scammer thwarted by icy conditions: VPD

A man slips and falls on an icy sidewalk in this image from Shutterstock.com

The Vancouver Police Department says a scammer was thwarted by ice and gravity over the weekend.

On Saturday evening, a man met up with a stranger to buy an iPhone 15 that was listed on Facebook Marketplace, Sgt. Steve Addison told CTV News in an email.

The meetup happened in East Vancouver, near Kingsway and Inverness Street.

The 24-year-old handed over $1,200 “before realizing almost immediately that the phone didn’t work,” Addison said.

When the man tried to get his money back, the attempted robber tried to run away, but Mother Nature had other plans.

“The suspect hit some ice, gravity kicked in and he fell, causing the cash to spread out for the victim to retrieve,” the VPD wrote in a social media post Monday.

Addison said that while the victim was collecting his cash from the ground, “he was repeatedly assaulted by the scammer.”

He added that the suspect fled the scene and has not been identified by police.