Prairie Village Police are investigating an armed robbery in Mission Hills on Monday evening that investigators say began as a deal for a gaming computer on Facebook Marketplace.
In a news release Monday night, Prairie Village Police Sgt. Josh Putthoff said officers responded to the incident at around 7 p.m. in the driveway of a home in the 1900 block of West 56th Street, just off State Line Road.
Prairie Village Police have jurisdiction over neighboring Mission Hills.
Putthoff said a resident of the home had set up a deal to sell the gaming computer on Facebook Marketplace, an online marketplace run by the social media giant where private individuals can arrange to buy, sell or trade items to others.
“After exchanging the item, the suspect pointed a handgun at the resident and told them to walk away,” Putthoff said in the release.
Putthoff described the suspect as a Black man in his 20s, clean shaven with dreadlocks, wearing a blue jacket and beanie-style hat.
The suspect was driving a gray, four-door Kia with an unidentified license plate.
There were at least two other people in the car, according to Putthoff, one of them possibly a female.
The Kia was last seen leaving the residence traveling east on 56th Street toward State Line.
Putthoff reminded residents that Prairie Village Police have designated a “safe exchange zone” for such online sales and transfers in the parking lot of the city’s municipal complex, 7700 Mission Road.
That area is marked by green-painted parking spaces and is under 24/7 surveillance, Putthoff said.
Prairie Village Police urge anyone who may have tips regarding this incident to contact the Prairie Village Police Department at 913-642-6868 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477.
