Man loses all his stuff in Craigslist hoax

25 Mar 2008 | 15:09 GMT

By Sylvie Barak

A MAN WAS stripped of almost all his worldly possessions on Saturday after a hoaxer impersonating him posted two adverts on Craigslist claiming that he had had to suddenly leave town and that people should help themselves to his stuff.

Independent contractor, Robert Salisbury, from Oregon had been away from his home Saturday afternoon when he received a phone call from a woman who had gone to his house to claim his horse. The woman had seen a Craigslist posting saying that the animal had been abandoned by its owner and, as an animal lover, felt compelled to go and pick it up. But when she arrived, she realised that the horse was in excellent condition and looked in no way abandoned, prompting her to call Salisbury.

According to the Seattle Times, Salisbury immediately rushed home, stopping along the way to plead with someone driving away with a lorry load of his things, including his work ladders, a lawn mower and a weed eater, to please give them back. The driver refused and angrily waved a printout of the craigslist advert at him in justification. The closer he got to home, the more cars he spotted skipping the scene packed with his possessions.

At home he found about 30 people scavenging through what was left of his barn equipment and porch furniture, none of them taking any heed of Salisbury’s protests to lay off. "They honestly thought that because it appeared on the Internet it was true," he blubbed.

Salisbury called the Jackson County sheriff's office, but by the time they had arrived, the pillagers had fled the scene. Jackson County Sgt. Colin Fagan, appealed to anyone who had taken Salisbury’s stuff to please give it back or face prosecution. The police are talking to Craigslist lawyers to try and track down the person in charge of the ad. µ

L'Inq
Seattle Times

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