Police investigate Internet prostitution robberies

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Police are warning people about a crime trend they're trying to stop.

Police said the website Backpage has ads that are obviously prostitution, which has them concerned for more reasons than one.

The ads say things like "private," "sensual," "sexy," claiming to do "anything you want."

"When you solicit anything on the Internet, you don't really know what you're getting," said Capt. Coerte Voorhees.

The special-investigations unit with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police investigated four robberies in just the past few months that started with prostitution ads on Backpage. When the men try to meet a prostitute, they're robbed at gunpoint. There were eight cases like this just last year.

"When the customers show up, they usually have money, and they are using that to make the robbery happen," Voorhees said.

That has officers working long hours, investigating prostitution and robbery cases, rather than patrolling the streets. North Carolina's attorney general said it's because Backpage refuses to stop running what he calls obviously illegal ads.

In a letter to Backpage in 2011, Attorney General Roy Copper wrote: "While Backpage.com professes to have undertaken efforts to limit advertisements for prostitution on its website, particularly those soliciting sex with children, such efforts have proven ineffective."

Because of the robbery cases, Eyewitness News has more questions in to the attorney general's office to see if there's any chance to shut it down.

WSOC