Slashdot Mirror
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."
Jeez. It's sad but in a different way. Makes me sad about the nature of man. What happened to common decency?
I wonder what will happen if someone posts a photo on the internet with a personal ad "Hey I'm 18 and hot, come and have sex with me, even if I say no. My address is..."
I hope the people who plundered crap at least have the decency to bring it back if they hear it on the news. It almost makes me wonder how they got into the apartment? Someone ought to be charged with breaking and entering.
I'm a little sorry I didn't think of it first. I would of course use a library or an open wireless AP.
On a related note, I have heard of a story about an ad placed on Craigslist asking for several construction workers for a job and to have their own tools. Workers show up, the guy asks them to deconstruct the house, and leaves. When the homeowner comes home at the end of the day he faces a bunch of angry unpaid construction workers and a demolished house.
That one probably isn't true.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Actually, it may be even *less* shocking than that. She evicted a tenant and then "cleaned out that rental."
Assuming the tenant didn't know the rental had been cleaned out, this could have easily been an honest mistake: a former tenant giving away the personal possessions he believed were left behind in his apartment. Without having read the original post, there's no reason to imagine the intent was "come steal my landlord's the water heater and windows" rather than "come get a free couch that I left behind when I had to move in with my sister in a hurry."
Granted, inviting everyone on Craig's list to empty out a house and not making arrangements to insure someone is around to meet them may not be particularly thoughtful. But it's hardly robbery.
I disagree. Most theft statutes require intent. By making the post, the poster effectively stole all of the items from the woman and then gave them away. That people had to come get them is a technicality. They are surely guilty of receiving/possessing stolen goods, but imho they aren't guilty of theft.
I bet my tenant horror stories much more horrifying than your landlord horror stories. Being a landlord, especially one with multiple properties tends to turn the nicest people into complete assholes.
I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
I know several people who've been abused through Craigslist -- unfortunately it just proves too tempting an environment for assholes. One friend had his garage pretty much cleaned out (bikes, tools, etc) from a posting on Craigslist saying he was moving and was offering it all free to people who would pick it up.
One friend had her phone number posted when she turned down a second date from some jerk and he posted an ad claiming she wanted men to call her up and tell her how they'd use her -- she was VERY freaked out until I figured out what had happened and got the post removed, then she debated changing her number because guys were calling at 2am and waking her up but I set her up with ringtone groups for which anyone not in the phonebook would get a silent ring. Then she just had to delete dirty voicemails for a few more weeks until the fun wore off and the guys realized she was never calling back.
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
During college I lived in what was called the "fruit section" of Bozeman MT, not only because of the street names (Plum, Avocado, Peach, etc.) but also because of the numbers of just plain fruity people living there. Anyway, one day I opened my garage (which was well off the street) to discover a bunch of stuff I didn't recognise had magically appeared -- a set of wheels, a kitchen stove, misc. household goods, garden tools, etc. Didn't appear to be dumped, stolen, nor broken. Landlord said it wasn't his stuff either. I never did find out where it came from.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
from the link: "The sibling rivalry is one of the reasons Tacoma Police are not looking at this as a criminal case. They say it's a civil matter."
IANAL but that's bullshit, isn't it? Since when has being related to the victim been a defense against a theft - or any other - charge?
Only three things are certain; death, taxes, and apocryphal quotations - Ben Franklin.
We are not getting the whole story here. Just a guess, but I would say that the Owner posted on Craigslist. The furniture in the place was the sister's. The sister took revenge and stole the fixtures and doors and stuff. The police know or suspect all this and do not want get involved, especially as those that came in and took the couch and related items really were taking them on good faith.
I would suggest to anyone in the future, After evicting a tenant, and failure to claim property, either auction/yard sale the stuff, or set asid e a specific time to be there when you let people haul stuff away.
Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
No a great prank is what I pulled on my asshat neighbors. they like to party, they like to have partys late at night and keep me up as well as the neighbors. So I build a nice big subwoofer in my back yard (which buts up near their house) and from 9:00am until 2:00pm I have a very high volume low frequency signal that is randomized (gotta love computers) that is played. this disrupts their sleep bretty bad as it's closer to their house with the crappy 1940's single pane windows, than mine that is all brick and new windows and I'ts very noticable inside the homes.
I notified all the near neighbors that hate them and they all OK'ed it.
Having a fenced yard, and burying it as well as aiming the ports to their house helped quite a bit.
Nobody would have cared about their late night partying if the people they invite did not think laying on the horn and driving over people shrubs drunk was a cool and normal thing to do.
I can't believe how many of my peers digress into banal discussions about evil landlords and evil tenants when examining a piece like this. I have my students do case studies every week. When they come across an interesting piece, like this one, that does not immediately seem related to networking or technology (the subjects I teach), I ask them to make the connection for me. That point of connection is usually the main point we, as tech professionals, can take away.
In this case, it demonstrates a flaw in the Craigslist community--an honor-based system--that allows people to post for any address. If anyone can log on and post an ad that refers to any address (e.g. "Change of staff--new office holder wants to redecorate--take what you want from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C.), you might say "didn't see that coming" the first time, but you sure can anticipate the copycats. Think of what the credit card industry went through--once upon a time you could order and have something shipped anywhere. Now, you are mostly limited to shipping to your billing address. If Craigslist were my firm (and for the case studies, I ask my students to put themselves in that position), I would look at devising a way to limit posts to the verified address of a registered user only.
Should Craigslist do this? That's their call. I'm just saying that instead of griping and moaning about bad landlords and rental experiences, we should look at an item like this and say "what can I learn from it." I would not want to risk even implied liability for my company by allowing such fraud to be propogated on my watch. Didn't online firms learn anything from that online check service that allowed anyone to register checking accounts without verifying their owners?
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
Blatent criminal activiy is a good reason to release the information. Craigslist needs to do the right thing and expose the perpitrator.
That's the prosecutor's job, not Craig's List. I believe they will do the right thing through the right channels. Satisfying the media's, yours, or my thirst for identity isn't necessarily the right thing, even if we want it.
Besides, Craigslist will probably find the IP is at a coffee house, then there will have to be further subpoenas for more information to find the perp.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)