HUMMELS WHARF — Fred Gold did not heed the warning to never buy anything being sold from the back of a truck.

At about 3:30 p.m. Jan. 2, the 65-year-old Port Trevorton man was in the parking lot of the Susquehanna Valley Mall when he was approached by a man selling stereo equipment from the bed of a pickup truck with a Maryland license plate, state police at Selinsgrove said.

That didn’t turn Gold off, apparently, and he listened to the man’s sales pitch.

Gold was told each stereo unit was worth $2,899 but since they were overstocked items, he’d be willing to sell two stereo units for $500, police said.

It wasn’t until Gold returned home and opened the boxes that he found out he’d apparently been had.

Although the stereo units were packaged in RDX brand boxes, police said Gold discovered the equipment inside did not include the brand name and was cheaply made.

That’s when he picked up the phone and called police to report the alleged fraud.

Police are looking for the clean-shaven suspect with medium-length brown hair who is about 6 feet, one-inch tall, weighs about 200 pounds and was wearing a brown Carhart coat.

The vehicle was a white pickup truck with a Maryland license plate with the last three digits of 610.