The Madison Police Department is investigating a robbery reported by an 18-year-old man who said he had been trying to sell jewelry to someone he met online on the evening of July 31 when two unidentified, armed men dressed in all black approached him in the Madison Drug parking lot.
The victim told Officer Jonathan Mills that he agreed to meet a buyer at Madison Drug because he thought it would be safe and had just shown him a watch and ring combo when the two men approached from the dark side of the Texaco station across Thomason Street.
The victim said he “jumped into his vehicle, leaving the watch and ring with the buyer, and sped away south down N. Main Street.”
He then called his girlfriend and 911 to report the crime.
Mills said in his account that he was inside the police department building across the street when the robbery was taking place and thought he heard three shots fired, followed by tires screeching.
Mills drove his patrol car through town with the windows down, trying to determine which direction the vehicle was headed when dispatch informed him the victim was in the front lobby of the MPD office.
While the victim explained what happened, he received text messages from the buyer accusing him of setting him up and claiming the victim had stolen a necklace and $1,000 in cash from him.
The victim allowed Mills to search his vehicle. However, no cash or jewelry other than the watches the victim was selling were found.
The buyer texted that he had been robbed as well, but when Mills told the victim to tell the buyer to call the police and give a statement, the buyer replied that he was on the phone with the police. However, dispatch said they had received no other calls about the incident other than those placed by the victim and his girlfriend.
When Mills went to the crime scene, he spoke with an employee of the Texaco who said he had not heard gunshots, but Mills later found three 9mm shell casings in the street.
Video footage taken from Texaco cameras showed the victim’s vehicle speeding out of the Madison Drug parking lot through the Texaco parking lot and southbound onto N. Main Street.
A few seconds after the victim’s vehicle moved out of frame, Mills said what sounded like three gunshots could be heard, followed by a second car starting and heading up Thomason Street. According to Mills, the other vehicle stayed out of frame during the entire incident.
Madison Assistant Chief of Police Colin Campbell said investigators are reviewing the incident, but no new information has been gathered in the days since it occurred.