Fake Craigslist ad leads to 'give away' of family's property

[Blue_Dolphin308]

LUBBOCK, Texas -- A yard sale is nothing out of the ordinary. But what if someone took your stuff because they thought you were giving it away for free?

A Craigslist ad posted Monday has one Lubbock, Texas family holding on to everything in their front lawn after the ad turned their outdoor treasures into a free-for-all without their knowledge. The ad uses catchy wording which is perfect if you are in the market to sell something, but the Barbosa family had no intention of getting rid of anything.

http://www.woai.com/news/local/stor...e-away-of-familys/Dvd8m5eWcUusAfoJwwwHGQ.cspx

 

[AlwaysShocked]

Perhaps there is a large and unsightly accumulation of items on the front porch and in the front yard of these folks that a neighbor got tired of looking at?

 

[txsvicki]

Since I live here, I was hoping to see what part of town this happened in, but couldn't see the actual ad. Maybe the scooter, skateboard, kids, and noise from remodeling has something to do with this.

 

[sfbaynancydrew]

This isn't the first time this has happened on craiglist. I've heard of entire homes that were temporarily vacant being gutted out by someone posting "everything for free". Truly mean!

 

[Melanie]

This isn't the first time this has happened on craiglist. I've heard of entire homes that were temporarily vacant being gutted out by someone posting "everything for free". Truly mean!

Personally, I thing CL should be shut down. More bad stuff comes out of it than good.

Anyway, I can't imagine what their yard looked like. Maybe it did look like a garage sale? I see carp in front of people's homes all the time, and there's usually a sign that says "FREE". Doesn't sound like this was the case.

Doesn't make it right, but it looks like only a few items were taken. At least it gives em an excuse to clean up the rest of their yard

Mel

 

[MissieMt]

I don't think it should matter how a persons yard looks. Posting an ad on CL is NOT the way to find resolution. Ask someone to clean it up, or file a complaint with the city, town, county...whoever is appropriate. This is just plain wrong.
I live outside of city limits, so people get away with a lot more. Some of the yards are a real eye sore...but it was my choice to move out here.

 

[Celt1997]

Personally, I thing CL should be shut down. More bad stuff comes out of it than good.

CL certainly has its seedy underbelly, but I wouldn't shut it down completely. In the past month I've sold a couple things for a good amount of money. Cleaned some room out of my basement, didn't have to worry about shipping, and usually had the money in hand and the item out of my house within 24 hours. Ebay can't offer that anymore.

 

[Roselvr]

I don't think it should matter how a persons yard looks. Posting an ad on CL is NOT the way to find resolution. Ask someone to clean it up, or file a complaint with the city, town, county...whoever is appropriate. This is just plain wrong.
I live outside of city limits, so people get away with a lot more. Some of the yards are a real eye sore...but it was my choice to move out here.

There was another case last year where a lot more was taken. IIRC the poster of the ad was charged; something to do with theft.

In this case, the poster of the ad should also be charged.

.

 

[cuppy199]

This has been happen for a while. Realtors where using it to post about their clients home for sale and someone would put them up for rent in a different ad even taking down payments from people for houses they didnt own. They need to crack down on these people or shut the site down IMO

 

[bamabeauty]

I had a personal experience with this same thing. We were living on some property and also had a rental mobile home there over a year ago when a relative got power of attorney over the property and tried to make us move and move the mobile home and filed a lawsuit. She could not make us move the mobile home until a court order had been issued and until the lawsuit was settled. In the mean time my husband got transferred to a different state and we had to move and decided to wait to move the mobile home until after the civil case and after a court order had been filed. The civil case was to be in Nov. A couple of months after we moved this relative posted an add on craigslist that the mobile home had been abandoned. Note this was in July months before the court case and right after we had moved She had someone come tear it down for scrap and remove the times we had stored in it. Keep in mind this mobile home still had a mortgage on it so of course it was not abandoned. She knew that and did it thinking we would have to pay for it. Well our insurance payed off the mortgage and said it was not worth their time or trouble to go after her but I was more than welcomed to file the police reports and turn them over. The mortgage company has however been in contact with the police and I am not sure what if anything has been done. I was not out anything because the insurance paid so I did not want to have any further dealings with this deranged woman but I do want to note that in the begining I tried to contact craigslist and they did nothing . Never even got back with me. There was a case a couple of years ago of a woman posting on CL for people to come get everything located in a house. Don't remember exact details but i believe it was a relative she did this to get back at. She was charged. Craigslist needs to start being held responsible and perhaps they will make an effort to verify that posts are real. Anyone with a fake email can post on CL! By the way I just want to point out it takes someone very sick , twisted , unhappy , mental and deranged to do something like that!

 

[legalmania]

CL certainly has its seedy underbelly, but I wouldn't shut it down completely. In the past month I've sold a couple things for a good amount of money. Cleaned some room out of my basement, didn't have to worry about shipping, and usually had the money in hand and the item out of my house within 24 hours. Ebay can't offer that anymore.

Bernie Madoff paid people back in the beginning also but, then thousands were left with nothing. If people know they can get away with it they'll keep ripping people off. They need to regulate it before it gets out of hand.