Craigslist Ransacking Was To Cover Up Burglary

from the well-that-didn't-work dept

Tue, Apr 1st 2008 10:09pm — Mike Masnick

Remember that story last week about someone posting a fake ad on Craigslist, leading to people ransacking a house and taking all sorts of stuff? It turns out that the folks behind the fake ad were simply trying to cover up their own burglary of the house. Apparently, they had stolen some stuff from the garage and figured the best way to hide the theft was to get a ton of other people to steal stuff as well, via the Craigslist ad. Of course, by posting the ad, they made it that much easier to track them down, as police retrieved the IP address and were able to figure out who was responsible. Once again, despite those who tried to "blame" Craigslist, it looks like Craigslist helped the police catch the crooks.

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Filed Under: craigslist, ransack, robbery, scam
Companies: craigslist

16 Comments

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Anne, 1 Apr 2008 @ 10:13pm

Losers
Thank God there are still dumb crooks out there. What a bunch of losers!
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Victor Trac, 1 Apr 2008 @ 11:32pm

That's kind of creative.
You have to give them some credit for creativity. :)
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Apr 2008 @ 11:58pm

this is an amusing story. and jesus, don't these morons watch tv? CSI, etc? Go to the library if you need an untraceable ip for the afternoon to setup a fake craigslist add.
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John Strickland, 2 Apr 2008 @ 12:04am

Well the neat thing about the library is now you must have your library card to use the internet.

And the kinkos uses a credit card.

Use a fucking proxy.
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krum, 2 Apr 2008 @ 12:49am

Re:
Or use you neighbor's wifi.
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heh, 2 Apr 2008 @ 3:20am

if you're in the house to burglarize it, get on their computer (before you steal it) and post the ad there.
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Jeremy, 2 Apr 2008 @ 3:37am

Why not...
Just go to one of those mall kiosks. they take cash right? #5 -- LOL! I could probably do that at my house with 4 of 7 unsecure networks at my house!
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2008 @ 5:42am

Question still remains, where is the oversight to take this stuff down? If that lies with the users than obviously they failed and if it lies with craigslist then they failed.
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MB, 2 Apr 2008 @ 6:24am

Thats what happens when hicks living in he middle of no where try to use the internet.
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Michelle, 2 Apr 2008 @ 6:27am

Isn't this what Tor is for?
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DanC, 2 Apr 2008 @ 6:31am

Re:
where is the oversight to take this stuff down

If craigslist is informed that a posting is illegal or fraudulent, they have a responsibility to remove it.

The problem was that there are still too many people who seem to believe that if it's on the internet, it must be true.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2008 @ 6:41am

Re: Re:
Or better yet, go into a random cyber cafe (preferably one without cameras) and order a 30 minute slot, paying with cash (which you've rubbed clean of finger prints) set up the ad via a proxy and NEVER return to that part of town again.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2008 @ 7:39am

With all the publicity (I imagine there would be a lot in the local area) I would hope the majority of the people who responded to the ad would return the belongings, but I know people won't.

The ad was too good to be true, nobody is going to post that type of ad and the crooks that responded should have known this.
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Cassius Seeley, 2 Apr 2008 @ 9:44am

OMFG!
OK #8 I am sure that the moment that CL folk learned of the ad, it was down. I've seen them take stuff down in less than an hour which is pretty dammed amazing when you considere the shear bulk of information that gets posted there every day. An besides the LEGAL reality is that CL is not repsonsible for these postings. Courts continue to side with them on this. If you want to whine about something make it about something that really needs attention like oh I don't know the illegal war we are in right now... or oh oh maybe the fact that our currnet administration cares not one bit for our constitution and our liberty and privacy... how those for starters? :)
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2008 @ 10:10am

I'm impressed. These thieves came up with an outlandish plan that actually worked (apart from one careless mistake that got them caught).
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another mike, 2 Apr 2008 @ 12:33pm

+1 for originality
-500 for ruining someone's life.
IANAL, but aren't these sort of things (owner left town and left a bunch of stuff behind) usually handled by a court-ordered estate auction, not a web ad to come take someone's stuff? That should have been peoples' first clue.
At the very least, the ASCP or Humane Society would have come to take the horse themselves instead of telling people to just go rustle it.
And the thieves responding to the ad had a printout from a website and thought that was enough justification to commit burglary. I'm glad the cops are tracking down all the people seen leaving the scene with the owner's stuff and are charging them with theft.
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