A Pe­tit Val­ley man was robbed by armed men in Mar­aval on Sun­day night, af­ter the man went to meet a man he met on so­cial me­dia.

Po­lice said the vic­tim, of Ma­ju­ba Cross Roads, Pe­tit Val­ley, went to the carpark of a fast food out­let along Sad­dle Road, Mar­aval, around 11.45 pm, to meet a man he met on In­sta­gram.

The vic­tim parked his grey Suzu­ki Grand Vi­tara and walked over to meet the sus­pect, who was of African de­scent, medi­um built, and dark in com­plex­ion.

He lat­er went with the man to Val­lot Street and then to Harold Street, where they were met by two masked men.

The trio be­gan beat­ing the vic­tim about the body, be­fore rob­bing him of his iPhone XS Max cell­phone val­ued at US$1,000; bank and iden­ti­fi­ca­tion cards; $200 in cash; and the keys to his van.

The vic­tim lat­er man­aged to flag down of­fi­cers of the St Clair Po­lice Sta­tion and Area West CID, who were con­duct­ing a joint pa­trol.

They fol­lowed the vic­tim back to the lo­ca­tion where he had parked to find the van miss­ing.

Of­fi­cers were able to track the vic­tim’s phone to Pic­cadil­ly Street, Port-of-Spain, but ef­forts to lo­cate it and the ve­hi­cle proved fu­tile. - An­na-Lisa Paul