Sheriff’s office lobby open for safe transactions.

By Rob Alway. Editor-in-Chief. 

LUDINGTON — The Mason County Sheriff’s Office is offering the use of its lobby as a safe place to go for people making online purchases. The lobby is open 24 hours a day and is monitored by video cameras with corrections officers in the next room.

“I really started thinking about this when my 21-year-old daughter left the house one day to sell a swimsuit to someone she had contacted through Facebook,” Sheriff Kim Cole said. “After she left I called her and asked her about the buyer, if she knew who the person was. She said she didn’t but the buyer was a high schooler from Scottville. That’s all she knew. That transaction had a good outcome but that hasn’t always been the case recently in other areas.”

With the increase of popularity of local sales sites like Craig’s List or Facebook yard sale pages, there has also been an increase in crimes.

“We want to provide a safe place for these transactions to happen,” Cole said. “If it can’t take place, we really encourage people to be in an area that is well lit and frequented by the public. It should be a highly visible place.

The Mason County Sheriff’s Office is located at 302 N. Delia Street.