Man loses his posessions to Craigslist hoax

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2008-03-24 05:02pm

Oregon man's property ransacked after Craigslist hoax

Associated Press

JACKSONVILLE, Ore. -- A pair of hoax ads on Craigslist cost an Oregon man much of what he owned.

The ads popped up Saturday afternoon, saying the owner of a Jacksonville home was forced to leave the area suddenly and his belongings, including a horse, were free for the taking, said Jackson County sheriff's Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan.

But Robert Salisbury had no plans to leave. The independent contractor was at Emigrant Lake when he got a call from a woman who had stopped by his house to claim his horse.

On his way home he stopped a truck loaded down with his work ladders, lawn mower and weed eater.

"I informed them I was the owner, but they refused to give the stuff back," Salisbury said. "They showed me the Craigslist printout and told me they had the right to do what they did."

The driver sped away after rebuking Salisbury. On his way home he spotted other cars filled with his belongings.

Once home he was greeted by close to 30 people rummaging through his barn and front porch.

The trespassers, armed with printouts of the ad, tried to brush him off. "They honestly thought that because it appeared on the Internet it was true," Salisbury said. "It boggles the mind."

Jacksonville police and Jackson County sheriff's deputies arrived but by then several cars packed with Salisbury's property had fled.

He turned some license plate numbers over to police.

Michelle Easley had seen the ad that claimed Salisbury's horse had been declared abandoned by the sheriff's department and was free to a good home.

"I can't stand to see a horse suffer so I drove out there and got her," Easley said. "The horse didn't look abandoned. She is in good shape for being 32 years old."

But it looked odd, so she left a note on Salisbury's door explaining the ad. She then decided to call to make sure the ad was legitimate when the second similar ad appeared.

"I feel bad because I was a part of it," Easley said. "It felt right to call the police."

Fagan praised Easley's honestly but said prosecution was likely for anybody caught with Salisbury's property.

Items can be returned with no questions asked, Fagan said.

Detectives have contacted Craigslist's legal team to try to trace the ad.

Meanwhile, Salisbury could not even relax on his porch swing.

Someone took it.

Seriously, that's fucked up. I wonder if it was someone using the add as cover for a robbery, or just a really douche-y thing to do to someone.

Eulogy · Post by **Eulogy** » 2008-03-24 05:16pm

I'm thinking it's both.

I hope that the maker of the ad, Craigslist, and everyone who looted the poor guy gets sued, bankruped, and THEN thrown in prison.

There is a reason why there are truth in advertising laws.

Post by **Edi** » 2008-03-24 05:31pm

If this had been a more violently inclined man and armed, there could have been several bodies for the cops to collect from the site.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-03-24 06:32pm

And if some of the ransackers were armed, they might have interpreted it as a robbery and killed him in "self defense". Now that would have been a real cluster fuck.

cosmicalstorm · Post by **cosmicalstorm** » 2008-03-24 06:38pm

I remember reading about this "trick" in some old "CIA's manual for revenge and payback" list that was making it's rounds on the internet ten years ago or so. I'd hate to be that guy.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2008-03-24 06:42pm

Oddly enough, the first thing this reminded me of was the ransacking of Bag End in "The Fellowship of the Ring"...

Seriously horrible for this to happen to him, though. I dearly hope that those idiots involved get exactly what's coming to them, especially the schmuck who told him off for denying that his property was up for grabs!

Havok · Post by **Havok** » 2008-03-24 06:45pm

The people that responded to this add and went and stole this guy's stuff are just complete assholes.
The add didn't mention it, but don't most people lock their doors these days? One of them had to break in.
I hope he had the smarts to get down as many license plates as possible.

Solauren · Post by **Solauren** » 2008-03-24 06:49pm

This is why Craigslist and websites like it should be (by law)

- held responsible for what ads are put on there website, and the results there of, or at least required to review them all before they are made public. (This would cut way, way down on postings like this).

- require registration and phone verification for postings (okay, not by law on this one but)

This isn't the first time I've heard of something like this happening because of a website like Craigslist. Almost always, its the result of someone pulling a revenge tactic.

i.e Daughter getting back at parents for tossing her out, Boyfriend at girlfriend for same notation, etc.

Oni Koneko Damien · Post by **Oni Koneko Damien** » 2008-03-24 08:24pm

havokeff wrote:The people that responded to this add and went and stole this guy's stuff are just complete assholes.
The add didn't mention it, but don't most people lock their doors these days? One of them had to break in.
I hope he had the smarts to get down as many license plates as possible.

The article says they were taking stuff from his yard and his front porch, not from inside the home itself. Most everyone I know doesn't actually lock their front porch (probably the flimsy screen-door type, too), unless they're actually in the home at the time.

But:

He turned some license plate numbers over to police.

So he was smart enough to do that. If I were as outnumbered as he appeared to be, the best thing I could probably do is stay out of the way of the assholes and get down the makes, models, and license plate numbers of as many cars as possible.

Michelle Easley had seen the ad that claimed Salisbury's horse had been declared abandoned by the sheriff's department and was free to a good home.

"I can't stand to see a horse suffer so I drove out there and got her," Easley said. "The horse didn't look abandoned. She is in good shape for being 32 years old."

But it looked odd, so she left a note on Salisbury's door explaining the ad. She then decided to call to make sure the ad was legitimate when the second similar ad appeared.

"I feel bad because I was a part of it," Easley said. "It felt right to call the police."

It's good to see someone there was a decent human being.

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2008-03-24 08:54pm

Isn't this an old story?

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2008-03-24 09:34pm

Lord Poe wrote:Isn't this an old story?

There was a previous story where this was done to an unoccupied, furnished home that was being rented. This one is a new occurrence of the same kind of tragedy.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2008-03-25 12:03am

Solauren wrote:This is why Craigslist and websites like it should be (by law)

- held responsible for what ads are put on there website, and the results there of, or at least required to review them all before they are made public. (This would cut way, way down on postings like this).

- require registration and phone verification for postings (okay, not by law on this one but)

This isn't the first time I've heard of something like this happening because of a website like Craigslist. Almost always, its the result of someone pulling a revenge tactic.

i.e Daughter getting back at parents for tossing her out, Boyfriend at girlfriend for same notation, etc.

How would your second point prevent someone from pulling off this stunt? Someone could just register under a fake name and address and supply a phone number not connected to them.

Fingolfin_Noldor · Post by **Fingolfin_Noldor** » 2008-03-25 01:55am

Throw in credit card verification I guess, though that will surely restrict the clientele.

KlavoHunter · Post by **KlavoHunter** » 2008-03-25 02:05am

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:Throw in credit card verification I guess, though that will surely restrict the clientele.

Oh, good, MORE places you have to give your credit card info.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2008-03-25 02:24am

Doesn't that even falter with the advent of gift cards?

Resinence · Post by **Resinence** » 2008-03-25 02:45am

cosmicalstorm wrote:I remember reading about this "trick" in some old "CIA's manual for revenge and payback" list that was making it's rounds on the internet ten years ago or so. I'd hate to be that guy.

Probably This? It's actually a bit interesting to read, even if things like soap in fountains etc is a bit obvious.

tim31 · Post by **tim31** » 2008-03-25 03:23am

Every time I've come home to discover that the house has been broken in to, I've been livid with rage. If I came home to find people doing it and claiming they had the right to, I don't know what I'd do.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2008-03-25 09:46am

tim31 wrote:Every time I've come home to discover that the house has been broken in to, I've been livid with rage. If I came home to find people doing it and claiming they had the right to, I don't know what I'd do.

The article doesn't say that they had actually broken into his house, just taken things from the outside and his barn - though I can understand that kind of reaction. It's a nasty feeling to think that what you've worked is just being taken from you.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2008-03-25 11:10am

Molyneux wrote:
tim31 wrote:Every time I've come home to discover that the house has been broken in to, I've been livid with rage. If I came home to find people doing it and claiming they had the right to, I don't know what I'd do.
The article doesn't say that they had actually broken into his house, just taken things from the outside and his barn - though I can understand that kind of reaction. It's a nasty feeling to think that what you've worked is just being taken from you.

No, it says they were on his front porch rummaging through his belongings. It sounds like they got into his house.

cosmicalstorm · Post by **cosmicalstorm** » 2008-03-25 11:24am

Resinence wrote:
cosmicalstorm wrote:I remember reading about this "trick" in some old "CIA's manual for revenge and payback" list that was making it's rounds on the internet ten years ago or so. I'd hate to be that guy.
Probably This? It's actually a bit interesting to read, even if things like soap in fountains etc is a bit obvious.

Cool!
I havent seen it for years, some of those tricks are actually pretty nasty. I remember a friend of mine did the carsalesman-revenge (wait outside and tell you're story to any prospective customers entering the dealership) a couple of years ago after being screwed over, in less than two hours the dealer decided to make it up to him

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2008-03-25 11:33am

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:Throw in credit card verification I guess, though that will surely restrict the clientele.

The best way to handle it would simply to moderate all the postings, and disallow any posting that has pickup for something without anyone needing to meet with the person picking it up face to face.

Zixinus · Post by **Zixinus** » 2008-03-25 11:53am

And if some of the ransackers were armed, they might have interpreted it as a robbery and killed him in "self defense". Now that would have been a real cluster fuck.

Didn't the land itself belong to the guy? In which case, the case turns into strangers being on his property without his consent.

While I agree that starting shooting would most likely a bad choice, in the guy's place I would have been very, very tempting thing to do. Seriously, if someone tried to do something like that to my stuff, my first reaction would not be a nice one.

Post by **Broomstick** » 2008-03-25 12:37pm

While shooting trespassers is a bit extreme, it IS legal in some parts of the US. There's no way in hell I'd go to pick over a scene like that without first double-checking for legitimacy of the situation.

Oskuro · Post by **Oskuro** » 2008-03-25 01:23pm

What really shocks me is how easily people switch into looting mentality, and don't even bother to look into the situation in case they got their facts wrong.

I've seen worse instances of this (people looting a car crash), and can't help but be appalled at how utterly greedy people become if given the chance.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2008-03-25 01:36pm

LordOskuro wrote:What really shocks me is how easily people switch into looting mentality, and don't even bother to look into the situation in case they got their facts wrong.

I've seen worse instances of this (people looting a car crash), and can't help but be appalled at how utterly greedy people become if given the chance.

To put it into a little better perspective, you might want to remember that a lot of people probably saw the ad, lived close enough that they could have tried to take his stuff, but didn't.