A 52-year-old Queensland man is recovering in hospital after allegedly being thrown off a balcony following a dispute over a sale on Facebook Marketplace.
The incident is said to have occurred at around 1pm on Saturday at the man’s home in Stapylton, where police and ambulance were called to respond to a suspected broken spine.
Per the ABC, Superintendent Brett Jackson said the man was allegedly thrown off a verandah after a fight broke out over his Nissan Pulsar, which he had sold to the three men allegedly behind the assault several days earlier.
Jackson said the exact details of the Facebook Marketplace transaction are not yet known, but estimated that the car was sold for around $3,000.
The assault involved “one of those people pushing or throwing the occupant from a first-storey balcony,” Jackson said, adding that there was an additional assault when the victim was struck with “a piece of broken balustrade”.
As a result, the man was taken to Princess Alexandra Hospital with broken vertebrae, where he is waiting to speak with investigators.
“The injuries to his spine are significant and it’ll be some time before they can fully determine what recovery looks like for him,” Jackson said.
While witnesses helped police identify the alleged offenders, no arrests have been made yet, with Jackson saying investigators are “canvassing CCTV footage” to identify the mode of travel the three men took to reach the victim’s address.
“Our investigations will continue,” Jackson said.
The incident is one of multiple Facebook Marketplace-related assaults to have occurred this year, with a separate dispute over the sale of a camera allegedly resulting in the injury of a Sydney photographer back in January.
That same month, a woman was reportedly assaulted while trying to sell a necklace during a Marketplace transaction gone wrong in Perth.
“We’re probably more aware of these sorts of things happening because they are reported more now than they were in the days of the Trading Post,” Jackson said.
He advised buyers and sellers to take “safety measures” when engaging in online sales, like attending the transaction with another person and doing so in a “generic, public location”.
Lead images: Queensland Police/X and Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
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