OLATHE, Kan. — An Olathe man thought he was getting a great deal buying an iPad on Craigslist, but instead when he met the seller in person, the buyer says he was assaulted and robbed at gunpoint.
Abraham ‘Abe’ Jiregna says Thursday night he first met a guy here at a Kansas City gas station to buy an iPad he saw for sale on Craigslist, but within moments Jiregna says he had a gun pointed at him.
“I just had my hands up the whole time and I told him ‘you can take whatever you want, just don’t kill me,’” says 34-year-old Jiregna about his face-to-face encounter with an armed robber, who claimed he would sell him an iPad.
Jiregna first saw the iPad advertised for sale on Craigslist. He and the male seller met last Thursday night at a gas station near East 39th and Hardesty Streets in Kansas City.
“When he arrived, he arrived with an iPhone instead of an iPad,” he said.
During an interview Tuesday, FOX 4’s Robert Townsend asked Jiregna if at that point he suspected anything.
“I kind of suspected something and then he just pulled out the gun, pointed it at my head and hit me over my right eyelid with the barrel of the gun,” he said.
Jiregna says after getting in his car the man then told him to drive around the corner to the robber’s house on East 40th Street where he pretended he’d run inside to grab the iPad, which the robber claimed he’d forgotten. It was at that point the robbery pulled a gun on him.
“I just kept my hand up and kept begging him no to kill me. My life’s in God’s hands. I was not afraid of death in a sense, but I was not ready to die,” said the husband, military veterans’ counselor and minister.
Jiregna filed a police report with Kansas City police. Investigators only have a vague description of the armed robber, who ran from the scene after assaulting Jiregna and stealing his cell phone and cash.
Jiregna says he will continue shopping on Craigslist, but now taking no chances.
“It makes me more cautious, to make sure that I don’t have my guards down, don’t meet at night and meet in public places with surveillance,” he said.
