Fake Craigslist Ad Leads to Gutted Home

"House being demolished. Come and take whatever you want. Nothing is off limits."

The ad appeared on the San Francisco pages of Craigslist and went on to list a street address in Tacoma, WA, noting that the garage door would be left open for easy access.

The ad, according to a story I first saw in the New York Times, worked indeed. The house was picked clean by visitors. Everything...the fixtures, windows, and, yes, even the kitchen sink walked out the door.

According to reports, the incident seems to have been the result of a landlord/tenant feud. The owner of the home, Laurie Raye of Tacoma, had recently evicted a tenant (added intrigue: the tenant happened to be her sister) from one of her rental properties.

Not long after the eviction, the ad appeared on Craigslist. When Raye contacted Craigslist about the incident, it allegedly answered that it could not reveal identities unless subpoenaed. And according to a story on local news, the police are declining to get involved since the incident involves a family dispute (and hence a civil, not criminal, matter).

Craigslist has no shortage of cautionary advice on its web site. The cardinal rule being: Deal only with listings in your local area. But when fakesters post ads it's tough to protect the "fakees." Mostly the list relies on "flagging," that is, people reporting when they stumble upon an ad they feel is inappropriate. If an ad listing receives some number of flags it's taken down. If a person is repeatedly flagged, Craigslist takes additional measures. The "take my house" hoax was eventually flagged and removed, but not before the house was left bereft.

Perhaps Craigslist should institute a call back system to verify the origin of strange sounding ads? What do you think?