Woman's House Robbed After Fake Craigslist Post

flanksteak writes "The Seattle Times is reporting that a woman in nearby Tacoma had her rental property stripped of almost everything after someone posted a fake Craigslist announcement that everything in the house could be hauled away no questions asked. When contacted, Craigslist said they would release data about the poster if they were issued a subpoena."

Comments

Re:nothing you can do about this

[RealGrouchy]

RTFA. It's a rental unit, as this person pointed out already. And it was devoid of personal belongings. And the victim is the landlady; she doesn't live there.

Methinks it would be very difficult for a Ted Bundy type to attack her in that apartment when she doesn't live there.

- RG>

WTF?

[Slashdot Parent]

The karma wheel did not bite her in the butt. The ex-tenant kicked her while she was down.

Clearly, you do not understand what an eviction is, so let me help you. First of all, a landlord may not evict a tenant. In some jurisdictions, a landlord who evicts a tenant could go to jail. At any rate, he would certainly owe the tenant damages. Look up "constructive eviction" to see what I'm talking about.

Here's how a real eviction works:

1. Tenant violates his lease, generally by not paying his rent
   
2. Landlord posts notice on the property to "Pay or Quit" (experienced landlords do this the minute rent is late.. beginning landlords let the tenant be late for a few months before acting). This means the tenant is given X number of days (number varies by jurisdiction) to pay rent or leave.
   
3. Assuming tenant doesn't pay by day X, landlord sues tenant for possession of his property. A court date is set.
   
4. Landlord goes in front of a judge and says why he's suing (tenant hasn't paid rent in 3 months, or whatever), and the tenant can present a defense ("I did pay, here are the canceled checks", or "No, I did not pay, but there was a legal reason for me not to pay and that reason is Y") and the judge decides what to do.
   
5. Assuming the tenant had no legal defense, the judge will order the sheriff to evict the tenant.
   
6. You set up a date with the sheriff for him to do the actual eviction.
   
7. You show up with movers and a locksmith to meet the sheriff at the scheduled time.
   
8. Locksmith opens the door (in case the tenant changed the locks) and then locksmith changes the locks.
   
9. Sheriff removes the tenant from the building
   
10. Movers move all the tenants prized possessions to the curb
    
11. Scavengers take anything of value
    
12. Garbage man takes the rest

At this point, the landlord is out a minimum of one month of rent (it takes time for the wheels of justice to turn) and usually more, plus court costs, eviction costs, locksmith, movers, etc.

In other words, if someone's getting evicted, it's for a darn good reason. It must be approved by a judge, and it costs money to do.

As you can see, this lady got kicked while she was down.