Craigslist a Pawn in Most Evil Prank Ever

I've wondered how long it was going to take for something like this to happen. In fact, I'm shocked it doesn't happen much more often. Here's the rub: Basically, someone posted an ad on Craigslist that the entire contents of a Tacoma area house were free for the taking. If you've ever posted something for "free" on Craigslist, you know what happened next: The community responded in droves, making quick work of the home and stripping it bare. They took the hot water heater. The baseboards. The kitchen sink.

You can probably guess the punchline: The ad was posted by someone peeved with the actual owner of the home, who was away. In this case, suspicion has fallen on the homeowner's sister, who was evicted from the house previously and was squabbling with her sibling. The video on the linked site will be shocking to anyone who owns a house. Can you imagine coming home to such a nightmare?

Craigslist ranks alongside eBay as possibly the most notorious haven for scam artists on the Internet. And while I think it's fair to blame eBay for not looking after its customers, Craigslist is another story. The key issue: eBay is a paid service that earns a commission on every sale (bogus or not), while Craigslist is free (except for a few limited exceptions). That's the whole idea of Craigslist: It's a free bulletin board system and anyone can post anything they'd like. The community polices posts that look suspicious, and the story linked above notes that this ad was indeed flagged and deleted after some time.

What can Craigslist do to protect users? Not much, I think. Craigslist may be universal and easy, but there's nothing to stop someone from doing the same thing in a newspaper classified ad or by simply posting a sign in the yard. The vengeful are not easily stopped.

As usual, awareness of the situation is your best ally here. Having a trusted friend that can keep an eye on things for you when you're away is pretty key. Of course, common sense doesn't hurt: If you evict your sister from your house, change the locks the same day.

But hey, if you have Laurie Raye's baseboards, please return them, OK?

LINK: Family fued may have sparked cruel Craigslist hoax