Craigslist Prank Listings Lead To Major Theft

Jacksonville, Oregon:

Two classified advertisements appeared on Craigslist Saturday stating that all the belongings of a home in Jacksonville, Oregon would be free for the taking, including a horse, because the owner had to leave the area immediately.

Unfortunately the owner of the property and the horse, Robert Salisbury, had no intention of giving away his property but was away from the house when dozens of people started to arrive at his house, rummaged through his belongings, and took the horse, ladders, landscape equipment, and other property valued at thousands of dollars.

Incredibly, Salisbury reports that he confronted some of the 30 some people he found on his property after returning home and many refused to stop the scavenging, insisting that the Craigslist advertisement somehow gave them the right to continue.

Fortunately for Salisbury, the woman who took the horse for humane reasons suspected something was strange about the circumstances, left a note, and contacted local police.

Salisbury collected the license numbers of those leaving his land with his property, and local police have opened an investigation into the case, perhaps one of the most flagrant cases of people believing what they read on the internet in defiance of their own common sense.

Source: Chris Conrad, Medford Mail Tribune.