Boise, Idaho News, Weather and Traffic - KTRV Fox 12 - Meridian Man Arrested in Park with a Knife
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Boise, Idaho -- A Boise woman's intuition may have saved her life over the weekend when instead of heading into an Eagle Park Saturday evening to pick up a free iPod, she called police.
The ad on Craigslist had always seemed too good to be true -- a free iPod Nano.
"I responded to it with the anticipation that several other people would because it seemed a little odd," said a woman, we're calling Sarah, to hide her identity.
Sarah heard back almost immediately.
"I did get response back from him with a little story about how he had a wife cheating on him and he needed to take her iPod from her and give it away because of the situation he had had with her," said Sarah.
The man told Sarah he was going to hide the iPod from his wife in a public place and arrange for someone to take it. All she had to do was show up to at the Youth Sports Complex Park on McMillan Road around 10:30 p.m.
Those who responded to the ad were told to come to this porta potty and that the iPod would be right in front of the toilet paper holder
"It sounded very odd so what my husband and I did was get the emergency dispatch number for the police, drove past the park and saw a car sitting there," said Sarah.
Sarah says the car was right next to the porta potty. She and her husband drove across the street to a nearby shopping area and called Boise Police. They responded quickly and took the man into custody.
"The police told us that he had had a black nylon mask on his face, a laptop in his car that he had been e-mailing people on, a black pair of gloves, a butcher knife and a BB gun," said Sarah.
Stephen Donald Newman, 32, of Meridian, was arrested and charged with two misdemeanors -- being in a park after hours and carrying a concealed weapon.
Since no felony had been committed, he was able to quickly bond out of jail.
Now that Newman is free, Sarah is afraid of retaliation, which is why she has chosen to hide her identity. She also wants to let other local women know about her experience.
"He is out there and can certainly lure anyone in again from Craigslist, the Internet or anywhere," said Sarah.
On Craigslist website, there are complaints by several people who say they were approached by Newman.
A representative of Craigslist was not familiar with this specific case but did offer the following tips that anyone responding to an ad should follow:
