A potential bogus iPad sale turned into a grab-and-run robbery Friday for an Atlanta couple doing last-minute shopping.
Shenita Chism and D'Andre Binns were holding hands as they were leaving the Greenbriar Marketplace flea market when two men approached them.
The couple also was holding shopping bags in their free hands. Chism told the AJC, she was also holding her wallet in her right hand with the bags of gifts she carried.
"One guy started talking to my husband, trying to get him to buy an iPad," Chism told the AJC. "But my husband told him he was not interested."
Police spokesman John Chafee says Binns did, however, ask to see the package which was wrapped in bubble wrap, despite Chism's refusal to entertain the men.
The second man approached the woman, trying to influence the purchase, Chism said.
"The second guy told me I should talk my husband into buying the iPad," she said.
Police say the men told Binns not to open the bubble wrap. When he ignored them and continued, the encounter took a turn for the worse.
"The guy grabbed my wallet from my right hand," Chism said, and both strangers fled, dropping the iPad box.
D'Andre chased them into the parking lot, and the couple flagged nearby police for assistance.
When they picked up the iPad box the bandits dropped, it turned out to be filled with wood rather than the computer tablet the men were offering, according to police reports.
And police were unable to locate the two men.
In an environment where enterprising grifters have begun trying to pawn off counterfeit iPads and iPhones on unsuspecting bargain hunters, this incident adds a new level that shoppers should beware of.
Chism said she was disappointed about the incident, and noted that thieves are taking advantage of any angles they can to separate would-be victims from their money and belongings.
"Whatever opportunity they can take, they will try to get what they can get from you," she said. "We're lucky they didn't pull out a gun."
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