Photo: YouTube Printscreen
Not willing to let his precious Rolex simply vanish, a New York man fearlessly jumped on the hood of a moving SUV to stop a thief attempting to escape with his beloved timepiece.
Facebook Marketplace has become a very popular platform for people buying and selling personal items online. However, the growing popularity of Marketplace also means it's attracting many scammers. The worst part is that these scammers are becoming more convincing in their acts of deception, something a Rolex seller from Long Island learned the hard way when a Marketplace sale went awry. He had to jump on the hood of the thief's moving SUV in an attempt to prevent him from fleeing with the Swiss timepiece without paying. "I was not going to roll over and let this man take it... without a fight," said Steve Mauro, the seller.
The 43-year-old had arranged to sell a Rolex watch for $8,000 on Friday in front of his home in Massapequa Park, according to ABC News. When the potential buyer showed up in a gray SUV at the location, he asked Mauro to approach for the money. Instead of paying him the promised $8,000, the thief locked the doors after taking the Rolex and started speeding away. Realizing he was being robbed, Mauro jumped on the hood when the scammer reversed his Honda SUV but was thrown off as the driver fled with the luxury watch. The incident was also captured on a security camera.
Coincidentally, police officers patrolling the area were nearby and saw the SUV knocking Mauro down to the ground. "I picked myself up, jumped on the hood, and then he took me for a ride. I was tossed on my front lawn, launched off the hood. I told the cop, 'go get the guy,'" Mauro said. However, it was too late, and the watch thief had already managed to flee by then. Mauro was treated at the scene for minor cuts to his hand, elbow, and knee. Police are now looking for the Honda, which reportedly had Connecticut license plates.
Describing himself as a seasoned Facebook Marketplace seller, Mauro said the scammer was very convincing, and he didn't expect foul play. "I can always sniff out a scammer from the very beginning, and this guy didn't come across that way at all," the seller said. "Large items like this, I probably wouldn't do it out of my house. That was probably my mistake." Robbing high-end watches is on the rise worldwide, and not even celebrities have been spared from this growing menace. A few months back, Ferrari F1 driver Carlos Sainz chased down thieves on foot to retrieve his $350,000 Richard Mille that was stolen from him in Milan.
