Three Robbers Use Dating Apps To Find Victims: Police

BALTIMORE, MD — The Baltimore police are looking for three individuals who are using social media to lure their victims to apartment buildings and then robbing them.

The robbers have been targeting male victims by using online dating apps, and the Grindr site "has been the social network of choice," the police said Monday on their Facebook page. They also released surveillance photos of the three wanted individuals.

The robberies have occurred in the area of the 5200 block of Loch Raven Boulevard, and in two cases, the robbers used a laundry room and pulled a black semiautomatic pistol on the victim, the police said.

Victims reported robberies on Oct. 25 and Nov. 6 at apartment buildings on Loch Raven Boulevard, another on Nov. 10 on Hillen Road, and a heist on Nov. 11 on Woodbourne Avenue.

The three robbery suspects are described as:

• A black male, about 19 years old, 6 feet tall and weighing 170 pounds, with a gray hoodie and red sneakers;
• A black man in his 20s, 5 feet 11 and weighing 170 pounds, with a beard and mustache and a dark-color bomber jacket;
• A black male, about 19 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 150 pounds, with glasses and a black North Face jacket.

Please contact Detective Calvin Moss at 410-396-2444 if you have information on this case.

Social Media Tips

The Baltimore Police Department reminds people who use online means for dating or shopping to always remember the following tips:

• Always meet in a well-lit public place and stay there
• Send pictures of the person to your friends
• Daytime is better for first meets
• Cross-check the person through other social media sites
• Stay sober
• Drive yourself
• Trust your intuition - if something doesn't seem right, leave
• Play detective - ask questions, plenty of them

Images: Baltimore Police Department