Home trashed after cruel Craigslist hoax

[0rganism]

Source: TRICIA MANNING-SMITH / KING 5 News

TACOMA, Wash. - Someone with cruel intentions placed a fake ad on Craigslist, inviting people to take whatever they wanted for free from a Tacoma home.

Homeowner Laurie Raye says there's little left now of the house. The outside of the home is trashed, the inside is nearly gutted and covered in graffiti. Raye says she is devastated.

"I was attached to this home because it used to be my mom's," says Raye.

Raye recently evicted the tenant and cleaned out the rental, but she would soon be the one taken to the cleaners. A phone caller alerted Raye to the destruction. She walked through her garbage strewn front yard to find her house dismantled. ...

Read more: http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_040507WABcraigslistadLJ.34e92f1d.html

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Proxy vengeance via craigslist -- not cool! The evicted renter is going to be the obvious suspect, of course -- but is it too obvious?

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. How long before people start accusing each other of being terrorists?

[0rganism]

4. that does give me an idea, of sorts....

(post to dc craigslist)
Open house! Take whatever you like, current occupant also challenges any and all comers to no-holds-barred wrestling matches. Free beer & bbq.

Address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington DC

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(note to the especially gullible and Agent Mike: I'm not advising anyone to do this, nor do I plan on doing so myself)

[MindPilot]

5. It's already happened a couple years ago

Sorry I don't have a link but IIRC, there was a man in Orange county (CA) with "middle-eastern-sounding" name. Someone posted his personal info and accused him of terrorism on a blog and his house was shot at, graffitied and his family was harassed.

[Judi Lynn]

7. I remember that. It was discussed here at the time. I believe the "newsman" worked for Fox News.

He had been around far far longer than necessary to know how wrong that was, but he got on a "patriot"
roll, and ruined this man's life in his attempt to ruin someone else's life with whom he confused the man.

[AndyA]

2. That is just awful.

Poor woman. She really must have pissed someone off. My bet is on the most recent or a former evicted tenant.

I would hope the Police get a court order to have the information on the person who placed the ad released. My guess it was done with a stolen credit card number, and won't be of much help.

[Book Lover]

3. Except for job postings, it is free to post on CL (nm)

[AndyA]

8. Well, that's too bad.

I've never used Craig's List. I wonder how they verify who's placing the ads? Or if they even really try.

[Pugee]

11. Apparently, police are not trying to find who placed the ad.

----Officials at Craigslist say they need a subpoena or search warrant to release information about who posted the ad. Tacoma Police say they are not going to request those documents. ---

[SharonAnn]

12. I would think this would fall under fraud or theft statutes. No subpoena?

[SemperEadem]

6. Sounds like this week's episode of "The Closer"

instead of "craig's list" it was "Jones List"... interesting.

[AX10]

9. Severe criminal charges must be brought against...

the perpetrator here. There is not excuse for this kind of action! Many years in jail should fix the SOB!

[Duer 157099]

10. I've often wondered if CL postings were like this

Sometimes in the "Free" section, people will post an ad that says things like "just come get it, it's out front at xxx address" and I've wondered: hey, what if the owner wasn't the person placing the ad? There's virtually no way to know.

So I guess I wasn't the only one thinking this.