Man disarms teen he thought wanted to buy his phone

WASILLA — What was to be a simple sale of a used phone took a dramatically bad turn Tuesday evening, police say.

According to Wasilla Police Department Spokesman Rick Manrique, two people — an Anchorage 16-year-old and adult Mat-Su resident — met at Walgreens at around 10:45 p.m.

The adult had a phone he’d posted for sale on the popular classified advertising site Craigslist.

“The guy set it down on the counter for a second, the kid picked it up and ran, the guy chased him down and caught him,” Manrique said.

He said that a struggle ensued.

“The kid begins to pull a gun out and says, ‘I’ve got a gun, I’ll shoot you,’ basically,” Manrique said.

The man with the phone to sell wrestled the gun away from the teen. Police showed up in short order — the store is across the Parks Highway from Wasilla Police Department headquarters — and the teen was booked into the Mat-Su Youth Facility charged with assault, theft and weapons misconduct.

Since he is a teenager being charged in youth court police did not release his name. If, as is sometimes the case, he is waived into adult court more details could be released.