I hope the moron who posted this is held responsible financially and the vultures get what they deserve as well. What a bunch of lowlife scum.
Posted on 03/24/2008 10:54:15 AM PDT by Mount Athos
Two hoax ads on Craigslist cost a Jacksonville man thousands of dollars in property Saturday and could land the pranksters in jail on theft and burglary charges.
The classified ads popped up Saturday afternoon on the Web site saying the owner of a home in the 7900 block of Sterling Creek Road was forced to leave the area suddenly and that his belongings, including a horse, were free for the taking, said Jackson County sheriff's Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan.
The only problem is that Robert Salisbury has no plans of leaving his home any time soon.
Salisbury, who works as an independent contractor, was at Emigrant Lake when he received a call from a woman 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 then sped away after rebuking Salisbury. On his way home he spotted other cars filled with his belongings. Upon pulling into his driveway he was greeted by close to 30 people rummaging through his barn and front porch.
"They were like a pack of vultures," he said.
Salisbury blocked his driveway and ordered everyone to leave his property. 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."
Some attempted to lie saying the home's owner had just left after instructing them to take whatever they wanted, Salisbury said.
"No one told me the truth," he said. "Eventually, I lost my temper."
Jacksonville police and Jackson County sheriff's deputies soon arrived to restore order. By then, however, several cars packed with Salisbury's property had fled.
He did managed to collect license plate numbers, which he turned over to sheriff's detectives.
Michelle Easley had seen the ad earlier that day. It claimed Salisbury's horse had been declared abandoned by the sheriff's department and was free to anyone who could give it a 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."
The strangeness of the situation inspired Easley to leave a note on Salisbury's door explaining the ad. She then decided to call him to ensure the ad was legitimate when the second ad appeared claiming everything on the property was fair game.
"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 had stronger words for anyone who plans on keeping Salisbury's property.
"This is completely unacceptable," Fagan said. "Anyone who knowingly keeps any of these items will be prosecuted with the full extent of our resources."
Items can be returned at any time with no questions asked, Fagan said.
"The public needs to be aware that we would never post anything on Craigslist," Fagan added. "If you see something saying otherwise do not believe it."
Detectives have contacted Craigslist's legal team in an attempt to track whomever posted the ad. They also plan to trace the license plate numbers taken by Salisbury.
Possible charges connected to the case include theft, burglary, computer crime, theft by receiving and conspiracy to commit theft and burglary, Fagan said.
"We are hoping the majority of these people will have a conscience and return the property to Mr. Salisbury," Fagan said.
After the rough day, Salisbury could not even take a minute relax on his porch swing — it had been snatched earlier that afternoon, he said.
"I haven't even looked in my barn yet to see what's gone," he said. "As a contractor some of what they took was my livelihood."
My guesses: Unhappy customer? Or enviro-whacko unhappy with construction projects?
File a lawsuit against Craig’s List. It was completely irresponsible of them to allow such an advertisment to be posted.
I wonder if Craigs List can be held accountable.
They can be and they should be.
This happened once before with Craigslist. The owner of that property found that the bathroom fixtures and the house’s plumbing was also removed.
I’m not all that surprised. There has never been a shortage of people willing to believe the implausible when it gives moral cover to a questionable self serving end.
They were just doing the kiping that Americans refuse to do?
.
The really scary thought is that they could be VOTERS.
I remember that one. What was the outcome of it? In this recent case, they may be able to track down some of the people due to Salisbury’s gathering license plate numbers. I hope so. It may have been a joke gone horribly wrong? Disgruntled ex-employee or another contractor? Whatever, people must be nuts to think they can just go up and take belongings like that. They *had* to have known it wasn’t legit.
I wonder how much responsibility CL bears in this legally..? It says when you post that they have no responsibility for content. Are they any more responsible than say, a newspaper that printed something similar in the classifieds? Or even FR for what is posted on here by individuals? IMO, it falls back on the OP, not the site host.
Name Gore in that lawsuit as he invented the internet. ;)
This is the second case of this happening. Craigslist was not held accountable in the last one and it will not be in this one either. It is all about people who believe something that is too good to be true and follow thru on it. They are the ones that need to be held accountable.
Humans at their lowest.
Why gun ownership is a good idea.
This reminds me of the thread the other day about people lining up at an ATM that was giving out double the cash. People standing in line to steal.
Link please.
:^)
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