Posted on 03/24/2008 9:55:48 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Oregon man's property ransacked after Craigslist hoax
Monday, March 24, 2008
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at kgw.com ...
>>Craig’s List is an internet freak show.<<
Well, as a musician, I have used it to buy and sell lots of equipment and join two bands as well as find members for another. I’ve discovered four weekly jam nights there. Made a lot of new friends.
As a general consumer I picked up furniture and even a good roto-tiller for $50 when the rental place wanted $70 a day to rent! We live in Seattle and my wife just bought a new puppy from a place in Minnesota (she works for an airline so it’s easy to get there). I will probably buy my next motorcycle off Craigslist and sell my used cars there.
I love it.
‘Course I stay far from the personals and political baloney. Maybe that is where the freak-show part is. Craigslist is like New York city. It’s got good places and bad places - and a lot of both.
Why? How were they to know the ad wasn't valid? Shouldn't it be the person who posted the message and/or Craig's List that is held responsible?
“what was the beef?”
I don’t know, but my father’s group back then was a very rough group of crooked lawyers and real estate guys, even an occasional crooked cop or sheriff.
They did some extraordinary things, once my father took a sheriff and a judge fishing and my dad knocked over a lantern in the trunk of his Cadillac that he wanted the insurance for, and he threw a match to it.
He claimed that it was a spur of the moment idea, and that the great witnesses on hand were just a coincidence.
I didn’t live with my father, but I do remember some of his Houston, Texas 1950s and 60s version of the hard men, these guys played rough and really competed to rip off each other in various business schemes, and they also did the roving high stakes illegal gambling which resulted in some edgy stuff.
These were guys that always packed guns and large sums of cash, but I also saw my dad penniless for months at a time until he would come up with a huge deal of some sort.
One visit we might eat pinto beans, but some visits it would be room service at the Shamrock-Hilton.
>>Above all else, the greedy people who showed up at his house need to be prosecuted for theft and trespassing.<<
Seriously, can you imagine the police stopping you as you haul a guys horse into your trailer and they ask who gave you permission to take it and you said, “I saw this ad on craigslist...”
You’d be in handcuffs in a few minutes, assuming you didn’t argue and get tazed.
PING...........
Well that’s the problem...it started out as exactly as you used it for...a decent place to buy/sell merchandise but it’s proliferated into a place where every loonball can post with impunity.
It’s a shame for people like you who use it for it’s intended purpose.
You DO NOT enter private property which YOU DO NOT OWN and steal somebody’s stuff. There are laws against that. Salisbury ought to get him a good lawyer and sue Craigslist
Doen't sound like a Craigslist problem to me. Sounds like a criminal problem to me.
>>They’d have to be pretty dumb to use a traceable address. That would be like calling from their own phone.<<
Most criminals are pretty dumb. It’s one of the reasons they do what they do. I’d have to knock off a liquor store and a couple of 7-11’s PER DAY to make what I make at my real job.
Cops count on them bragging to friends etc. to catch most petty criminals. It works really well. They caught one murder suspect at a Mercer Island gas station on his way out of town because he bragged to people what he was doing. It is not unusual. Rather, it is the norm.
Could be placed by your old girlfriend or boyfriend.
I think that the people who built the vehicles which were used to transport the guy’s stuff off his property are responsible.
I guess the smart ones just don’t get caught.
>>How were they to know the ad wasn’t valid? <<
How were they to know it WAS?
If you passed a house in a neighborhood that had a sign up that said “take what you want. Everything is free.” but there was nobody there, would you?
Would you have a legal case if the cops caught you? Would the local Ace Hardware which supplied the sign material be responsible?
>>Well that’s the problem...it started out as exactly as you used it for...a decent place to buy/sell merchandise but it’s proliferated into a place where every loonball can post with impunity.<<
That is probably there, but I haven’t come across it yet, and I use it constantly. But I focus on the seattle area. It may be different in other places. For me it is like the old newspaper want-ads or the little nickel - but on steroids. I love it.
I'm sorry, I looked but didn't find your /sarc tag. I can only assume you overlooked it while posting as you can't possibly be serious.
>>Salisbury ought to get him a good lawyer and sue Craigslist<<
For what exactly? Can I sue Glock if a guy uses their gun to rob me? How about Buck Knives if he does it with one of their knives.
This country is losing the concept of personal responsibility and the impact will be felt by all of us. There are too many organizations that will clutch at any straw to stop Craigslist. They are protected from responsibility here in the same way they were protected in Chicago from the “discriminatory” real estate ads.
They are protected by law. And the law was written specifically for the internet. Thank God for that or attorneys would be having a field day with Craigslist and countless other sites - like Freerepublic.
I didn’t know it was free. Never been there. The authorities SHOULD be able to get some info on the original perp from the Admin.
Sounds like dad ran with the bunch around the ship channel around Mcarty street.Know that area and about the people during that era as well. I may have even known your dad, or, at least some of his friends.
The victim ought to sue for millions. People are cruel and vindictive. But CL ought to be held liable for their own stupidity in allowing the ad to be put up without review.
>>I guess the smart ones just don’t get caught.<<
Truth.
Actually two groups: Smart, and lucky. And if it is a pattern, they eventually will get caught. You just can’t keep it up.
I outran the cops twice in my life - the only two times I tried. But if I were to have made a habit out of it, I would have been caught eventually.
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