LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) is urging caution when purchasing or selling items with strangers online.
The department's warning comes after a woman was shot on Sunday after meeting up with a man to make a sale in the Chickasaw neighborhood. LMPD said the pretend buyer tried to rob her on the 4200 block of Greenwood Avenue and then shot her while she attempted to get away.
LMPD Public Information Officer John Bradley said where you make an exchange is critically important when it comes to your safety.
MetroSWAP Zones have been established at four LMPD divisions for years now. Bradley said the designated parking spots were added to encourage the public to meet at a safe location when making a sale from an online interaction.
If you decide to meet someone at a MetroSWAP Zone, police recommend you make an exchange during the daytime and let someone else know you'll be in that area.
Bradley said it's the department's attempt to prevent assaults like the one on Sunday from becoming a common offense.
"Essentially it's providing a safer environment for people who are engaging in this online commerce to meet," Bradley said. "Where they can feel pretty secure that they are not driving up to meet someone who has ill intent."
Not every LMPD division has a MetroSWAP location, but Bradley encourages people to meet at any police station in this situation.
"There are typically cops coming and going at all hours day and night," Bradley said. "There's generally speaking somebody around. That kind of helps dissuades people from perhaps committing these acts if they know they're standing in front of a police station."
These safe locations can also be found at LMPD's 2nd and 8th divisions and are all under 24-hour video surveillance.
Bradley also mentioned if you do happen to be harmed or robbed when trying to make an exchange anywhere in the city to immediately report it.
Officials are still working on getting an image of the suspect, and the Nonfatal Shooting Squad continues to investigate the assault. If you have any information from the attempted robbery please call their tip line at (502)574-LMPD.
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