LA MESA, Calif. -- A search was under way Friday for four men who lured a 21-year-old man to a La Mesa park with a Craigslist ad and robbed him, police said.
The man was robbed of $2,100 at La Mesita Park at 8855 Dallas St. shortly before 8:30 p.m. Thursday when he went to the park to buy two Apple MacBook computers, according to La Mesa police.
The man and a friend told police they went to the park and spotted two of the men sitting in a parked 1996 Honda Accord, California license plate 3STU216. According to police, when the victim and his friend approached the vehicle, the suspects got out and one of them threatened them with a box cutter and demanded cash.
About the same time, two other men walked out from behind a toilet and one of them punched the victim in the face, police said. The victim was not injured.
All four robbers then fled east on Dallas Street in the Accord, which police later learned was recently purchased by an auto dealership in Tijuana, Mexico.
Police described the suspect with the box cutter as a Hispanic man of about 19, 5 feet 9, 140 pounds, with long dark curly hair and tattoos on his right arm. The second suspect in the car was a Hispanic man of between 20 and 25, 5 feet 9, 160 pounds, with long dark curly hair and a left arm full of tattoos.
The suspects who appeared from behind a toilet were described only as Hispanic males wearing dark clothing.
On May 11, La Jolla High School graduate Garrett Berki, 18, was shot to death when he went to Paradise Hills to purchase a $600 computer for sale on Craigslist. Three teenage gang members accused of killing the Mesa College student have pleaded not guilty to murder, robbery and other charges.
Rashon Abernathy, Seandell Jones and Shaquille Jordan, all 17, are being prosecuted as adults. They are in custody in lieu of $5 million bail each.
