Woman says online yard sale leads to face-to-face assault
MIDTOWN JACKSON — A routine buy from an online yard sale Monday morning put a West Tennessee woman in danger. “It was just a normal, routine trade and it turned into a nightmare, honestly,” said Lauren Talley, an avid shopper on the Facebook page, “Buy, Sell, Trade.” Jackson police said she was reportedly attacked by a man she thought was going to sell her a tablet computer posted on a Facebook yard sale. Talley said she parked her car in an open spot at Highland Park Baptist Church in midtown Jackson. She was meeting with Terrance Robinson to look at an LG tablet computer. She says the two had communicated via text messaging before the face-to-face encounter. “He had said it was a new LG tablet, in a box, and it was not in the box,” she said. “So I was like, ‘hmm.’ I locked my doors, and I was like ‘something’s not right.'” Talley said she has bought several items from the online sale site in the past. She even said she has bought other tablets as recently as the past two weeks. Talley said when she told Robinson she did not want to buy the gadget, he lunged into her car and attacked her. “It had to be a good three minutes of me just trying my hardest to not let him in that vehicle,” Talley said. She said when she would try to roll the windows up, Robinson would force them down. “I was scared for my life at that point, and I was like ‘what are you going to do?’ That’s when I realized my engine’s still running, so I floored it’ and I just took off.” Talley said she almost hit two other cars as she was leaving the church parking lot. She also said her alleged attacker, Robinson, did not come alone. He came with at least three other men, according to Talley. Police said while Talley did meet Robinson in a public place and during daylight hours, gut instincts play a huge part in personal safety. “Ultimately, you have to trust your instincts and have a plan ahead of time,” said Lt. Phillip Stanfill with the Jackson Police Department. “If this were to go wrong, what am I going to do?” Stanfill also recommends having an exit strategy and arriving at the meeting spot early. “Look around. See what you see,” he said. Talley said she is going to be more cautious in the future. Robinson is charged with attempted robbery. His bond was set at $30,000.
