1. Contact stranger on Craigslist to meet up for sex.
2. Have sex with stranger.
3. Stranger beats you up and robs you.

Call it what you may—though if you follow these steps you’ll probably be calling SPD—this is the 21st century formula for an empty bank account and a trip to Swedish Hospital.

It seems that the dangers of using Craigslist as a means for sex doesn’t mean much to users who become victims of first-degree robbery these days.

We’ve seen it happen to the Seattle University international student who thought he was going to meet a 14-year-old girl but ended up facing the ground as the perpetrator pretended to be a federal agent; the student was robbed of a few hundred dollars as well as his pair of sunglasses.

Police called it a bizarre case, but they’ve seen others like it, including the recent arrest of man who used sex as a bait to rob two victims in an East Howell Street apartment. The perpetrator in the newest cases appear to be different from the man who robbed the Seattle U student, but the similarities are striking nonetheless.

On Jan. 25, David Hansen was taken into custody after escaping from officers who tried to arrest him earlier that week for the two robberies.

The first robbery happened on Nov. 13 when a man contacted Hansen through Craigslist seeking sex. Hansen arrived at the victim’s house that night to meet his request.

A few hours later, the victim began to feel uneasy with Hansen’s behavior and asked that he leave. As the two reached the top of the stairs, the victim turned his head away from Hansen at which point he picked up a glass candleholder and hit the victim on the head. The blow from the candleholder split the victim’s scalp, causing him to fall to the floor.

With no time to lose, Hansen ran downstairs after picking up the victim’s iPad and attempted to steal his bike.

The victim, still bleeding from his head, followed Hansen downstairs to pull his house alarm fob from his pocket and hit the alarm button.
Hansen gave up on trying to steal the bike and took off.

After the victim was treated at the hospital for the blow to the head, the prints on the candleholder came back to Hansen’s name.

For two weeks, surveillance was conducted on Hansen’s address. He never came back.

But on Jan. 5, Hansen attacked again, and this time it was different.

Going by the name of “Josh,” Hansen met at the victim’s apartment to have sex.

However, once he was inside, he pulled a pistol from his waistband and threatened to kill the victim if he moved.

The victim complied to Hansen’s demands, as he proceeded through the victim’s apartment gathering his iPhone, wallet, wrist watches
and laptop.

It only took Hansen 15 minutes to raid the place before he told the victim not to tell anyone about what happened or else he would come back.

The victim held back from reporting the incident because of Hansen’s threats until he saw a similar incident reported on the SPD Blotter.
He was later able to identity Hansen.

According to Central District News, “police attempted to take Hansen into custody but ended up waiting for a warrant to enter an empty apartment.

Hansen was long gone, and reportedly, took to Twitter to mock SPD’s effort to apprehend him.”

Four days later, Hansen was finally arrested outside an Aurora Avenue motel.

Hansen will enter a plea early this month. For now, bail is set at $250,000 due to flight risk and fear of further criminal activity.

Given the increase in robberies in general on Capitol Hill students and resident would do well to be wary of any internet offers of sex. In general there are safety concerns to consider, but if internet hook-ups are becoming a common way for thieves to find potential victims, extra caution might be warranted. After all, there is not way to be absolutely sure of someone’s identity on Craigslist or almost anywhere else on the Internet for that matter.

To put it succinctly: if there’s anything we can learn from this string of robberies, it’s this:
1. Do not contact stranger on Craigslist to meet up for sex.
2. Do not have sex with stranger.
3. You will not get beat up or robbed if you follow 1 and 2.

Chelsee may be contacted [email protected]