the police should probably start with ex-wives and ex-girlfriends/boyfriends. Call me Sherlock.

... beit ebay, craigslist or one of the lesser ones we have in the UK such as free-ads, they do not benefit from putting time into making sure ads are real.

Its better for site-advertising e.g. banners, if the site has x number of live ads. I worked for a UK classifieds site and they're input on moderation and ensuring all was ok was very low.

I would suggest that if craigslist cannot identify its user then they should be accountable. Move this logic on to Ebay etc and you'd see the fraud drop. They can do it but will only re-act when they see business drop.

Also, quick question : why no door locks. No-one can take my stuff while i am out with a decent charge of breaking and entering (and mountaineering given i live on a 3rd floor).

This is going to be the best April Fools Day ever!!!!! :D

**picks through address book to find people who deserve to suffer**

The police should prosecute regardless. Ignorance and stupidity is no excuse for theft. Simply put one of the "looters" could be the clever thief who posted the ad on Craigslist. Tagging the looters for thieving might learn them that you can't get something for nothing.

Sort of 419 in reverse - all those responding to the spam go and grab what they can. Only thing here is that the one who lost it all wasn't the poster.

There's nowt quite like 'social networks' is there?

Greedy bastard network would be more apt.

This ill concieved, fuckwitted idea of a site should be terminated, forthwith.

And it's operators forced to reimburse and compensate this guy.

Actions = Responsibility.

I hope he sues them into a hole in the ground.

...about a year ago?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003652872_webhouse05m.html

"Ignorance and stupidity is no excuse for theft." Unfortunately it is not necessarily theft. The definition of theft requires "intent to pernanently deprive". To prove this requires the simple step of making it known that the ad was fake and then verifying that a person did not voluntarily return the goods. Simply put, the police action is exactly right for establishing a clear case of theft.

Ard shur like fer ter see theyem boys tra thayat ayen a layand whur we got gunz.

Oh, wait!

Doh! Stupid NRA!

How could these people NOT have known the ad was fake? After all, it didn't include a photo of the guy's penis!

Maybe one should consider securing things like ladders, lawn mowers and weed eaters. Especially if you have any enemies who know how to use the Internet. Still, incited by Craigslist or not, people can always take your stuff... might want to discourage that with locks & such. Unless you're Paris since she doesn't know any better.

Someone posted a "help wanted" ad at the local unemployment office that indicated he needed help to "tear down" an existing house. Willing to pay minimum wage, etc... Well, the house got torn down, but the owner didn't want it that way. Oh, well.

I believe it was back in the 70's or so, but I'm not so sure. They now have regulations about such things, but not then.

The only person who is not suspect in this case Is the person who called the victim to ask about the horse ahead of time. The victim told the looters he was the rightful owner, and this was a hoax, and to leave his stuff alone. The looters ignored him. I would say the truck that sped off with the victims ladders, lawn mowers, etc was clearly "intent to pernanently deprive."

Everyone else is suspect and could be a clever thief, whether or not they return the property they took. I doubt they left the victim an itemized list of the property they took and where to contact them....

And anyone one that waves a printout of a craigslist ad as proof they can take whatever they want is stoopid!

As an expat Brit living in the US, I'd say that petty theft is much less common in the rural US than in the UK (not so sure about the cities). At one time or other everything that wasn't chained down was stolen from our house or garden in the UK (including patio furniture, cars, televisions, and even paving stones from entrance). By contrast I have lived in a number of states in the US where houses in the country were never locked and burglary and theft is extremely rare - which is why this guy didn't lock his house or feel the need to chain down everything in his barn, shed, or garden. I hope we can all agree that it really shouldn't be necessary to lock everything up behind bars to prevent other people stealing it.

My ex in-laws have no locks on their house and usually leave the keys in all the cars and trucks on the farm in case someone needs to move them. Not going to tell you exactly where in case some thieving scouser decides to book a cheap flight over and have a "working" holiday.

I have to say that this is one of the aspects of living in the US that is much nicer than living in the UK.

Have any of you that are suggesting "securing" stuff ever even been near a farm? It's simply not possible to secure all your stuff and still get your work done. Most farms around where I grew up simply don't have the indoor space to store all their equipment. Sure, you can lock your car and lock your house, but locking up every piece of equipment and every outbuilding gets expensive and time consuming really fast.

Further, apart from idiotic stuff like this, there's generally no need. I live in a farm area and hardly anyone even locks their house door. I'd be extremely surprised to find that ANYONE locked their barn.

Where I grew up if we needed some equipment we didn't have and the neighbors did, we just went to their place and borrowed it, leaving a note. We'd just bring it back in better shape than we got it, doing repairs or whatever, in payment. Nobody locked anything, and AFAIK it's still that way there.

why should crags list re reimburse this guy ?? What did they do wrong. THey did not except money for this ad. Would you apply the same logic to a real news paper that put out free ads ??

If I was a printer and some paid me to make copies of an ad that said a sex offender lives at this address but it was false would I be responsible ?

Just before I emigrated from the UK, I advertised that I had a load of free stuff on a website. The people were like vultures, fighting with each other. Half of it ended up on the local market the following weekend. One guy took all the forks but no knives!

My neighboring ranch had their, er, gate stolen. Locked tight, of course, but they didn't think about the hinges. (Or even think that someone would want to steal their gate, I wager.)

Why no locks? Well, it's Oregon and it's rural. People tend to be both more honest and more trustworthy. Area in California where I grew up was like that up into the '70s. Then things went south as "outsiders" moved in. They always wondered why we locals talked so rudely about them. We would just point to the crime rate before and after.

I live in "Rural" UK, both small town and small village. All my life I have never had a theft, shed door is never locked, door is often open. But we do lock it when we leave usually, why not. Cars often with the keys left inside, or left unlocked.

Never had a problem. Try not to assume that yours is so typical, mine might not be either. But then my point isn't the same as yours.

As for my comment to the article.

The people taking stuff, should have thought twice and really not have taken anything without some kind of owners presence there. Stupid yes, but probably not illegal. They should be shamed for it.

As for the site, they might not be clearly legally responsible, but they should show some responsibility in this matter. It should never have been allowed to pass in the first place.

I hope the police get all the assistance they can from Craigslist, and the ISP of the IP address. Unless the user who posted it, was being clever, it shouldn't be too hard for them to get the details of the person from the ISP. Sadly we probably won't know the outcome of this, as it is with all "enquiries".

... is how thin the veneer of 'civilisation' is over Western 'society'.

We seem to think we are all civilised and morally upright, but one small example of social engineering and everything falls to pieces - I bet most of the looters went to church the next morning feeling totally at ease and holier than thou...

God help America if this is an example of what happens when peoples taboo's get breached - Post-Apolocypse they'll be ripping each others throats out...

I know lots of people in Oregon, many of them decent folks but several who definitely do not deserve to be called honest. Utter lowlife actually, working for hi-tech companies in Oregon. It's white collar stuff, not ladder stealing. So no need to lock your garage, but guarding your passwords is another matter. Give me Californians any day.

We're, what? Three days from food riots?

I bet it was the "Anonymous" group of Somethingawful.com. They're always up for sick things like that.

As an ex-pat 'scouser' living in the US I take exception to your ill-informed, racist comment. When living in Liverpool I never had my house robbed once, my car touched or was subjected to physical violence. Why is it everyone has to have a go at people from Liverpool - crime rates are far higher in the affluent suburbs of London.

Since living in the US my house has been burgled 3 times, my car carjacked three times and I've been mugged - clearly you live in Cloud 9, Ohio - The US is many times more dangerous than the UK. Interestingly enough one of the robbers also had the name Raoul!

Must be a lot of Scousers living in the USA then. And thanks for the confirmation that Scousers are a separate race - most of us thought they were already

that this is still news this sort of thing is rear enouht that it is news when it happens considering how easy this sort of things is and the *blanked* of some pepol it shows how soild the bases of socity are that this dose not happen every day

"that this is still news this sort of thing is rear enouht that it is news when it happens considering how easy this sort of things is and the *blanked* of some pepol it shows how soild the bases of socity are that this dose not happen every day"

Huh?

"that this is still news this sort of thing is rear enouht that it is news when it happens considering how easy this sort of things is and the *blanked* of some pepol it shows how soild the bases of socity are that this dose not happen every day"

Take heart that this is still newsworthy. It is still rare enough that it will make the news when it happens, and considering how easy this sort of thing is that is surprising. Some people are mind-numbingly stupid when it comes to things like this, and it just goes to show that the base of society is not as solid as we think it is.

Either that or the last part is:

And it is the shocked looks of people that shows how solid the bases of society are that this does not happen every day.

At least he spelled his name right. Must be amanfrommars under a pen name.

Only a matter of time before someone copies this idea.

Actually, didn't something similar happen except advertising an open invite for a house party, and the house subsequently got trashed?

"I bet it was the "Anonymous" group of Somethingawful.com. They're always up for sick things like that."

Heh. To post on Something Awful, you need to sign up with a name and *pay*. I think you are perhaps confusing them with 4chan, who are, indeed, Anonymous. Anon is legion.

The horse is 32 years old? AND in good shape? Could it be this horse is a rocking horse? Or a picture of a horse? If real, I would expect it to have been to the glue factory a couple times by now.

Oh dear, seems someone isn't as clever as they think and apparently doesn't understand the definition of racism.

the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national/regional or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.

Next time engage brain before posting. Seems the original poster used it correctly.

same here basicly. I'm in Rural NZ, over an hour from a decent sized town with a nightclub, and over half an hour from a rural service small town with ag supply stores and a pub. We never lock up, the quad bike has it's keys in the ignition all the time, car keys sit on the dash, stuff like that.

where we were up north on the previous farm before shifting in down here last november we didn't even have keys to lock the house with, all the back door keys got lost 10 yrs ago.

We have a number of big vicious farm dogs however, they only get locked up if we know visitors are coming, and are always chained up before we open the deer fence gate to let the visitors into the house surrounds, I'd like to see any buggers trying to carry off the TV with a huntaway hanging on to his balls and a header with her teeth in his butt :D