A 19-year-old Galt man is behind bars after Lodi police say he robbed two separate online sellers at gunpoint within less than an hour of each other, using what turned out to be an airsoft replica pistol. George Marquez was arrested Sunday and is now held at San Joaquin County Jail in lieu of $240,000 bail on suspicion of armed robbery.
According to the Sacramento Bee, officers were called around 11 a.m. Sunday to the 1900 block of Wyndham Way, where a juvenile victim reported that a buyer who had arranged to purchase his iPad through social media instead pulled out a gun, stole the iPad, and fled in a white SUV. Less than an hour later, police received a second robbery report on Culbertson Avenue, where a suspect matching the first robber's description had arranged to buy a video game controller, then stole it at gunpoint as well. Lodi police said no one was injured in either robbery, per the same report.
Surveillance Footage Leads Police to the Suspect
Nearby surveillance video helped investigators identify the white SUV used in the robberies, the station's report notes. Officers later spotted the vehicle near Harney Lane and Mills Avenue and detained Marquez. The Sacramento Bee also reported that officers recovered both stolen items along with a Glock 19 airsoft pistol tucked into Marquez's waistband.
Lodi police have urged residents to take precautions when buying or selling items through social media and online marketplaces, according to the same account. Marquez was scheduled for arraignment Tuesday in San Joaquin County Superior Court in Stockton, per jail records cited by the Bee.
Police Departments Have Pushed Safer Exchange Options for Years
The case lands in a region where local agencies have spent nearly a decade trying to steer online transactions away from risky meetups. HNG News reported in January 2018 on an internet-purchase exchange zone in Lodi, Wisconsin, describing it as a safer place for people buying and selling items online to meet and noting possible confusion with Lodi, California. The Sacramento Police Department has described its own Safe Exchange Zones as under video surveillance.
What Marquez Could Face in Court
Robbery is classified as a violent felony and a strike under California's Three Strikes law, and under Penal Code Section 211, second-degree robbery carries a base state prison sentence of two, three, or five years, according to legal guidelines published by Eisner Gorin LLP. The use of an airsoft replica rather than a real firearm could also raise separate legal questions. Under Penal Code Section 417.4, brandishing an imitation or replica firearm in a way that induces fear of bodily harm is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in county jail, per legal analysis from Shouse Law Group. Separately, California law makes the open display of an imitation firearm or BB device in public an infraction for a first offense.
It remains unclear whether Marquez acted alone or how many prior online transactions he may have conducted before Sunday's robberies.
