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As someone who’s moving tomorrow (and doesn’t particularly want to) because my landlord is selling my house (just like he said he wouldn’t) it’s hard not to crack a smile at this … even though it’s very bad. A disgruntled tenant in Seattle is suspected of posting an ad on Craigslist inviting the general public to take anything and everything they wanted from her unlocked apartment, which she had just been evicted from. That they did: even though the ad was only up for an hour before Craigslisters flagged and removed it, by the end of the day the place was bare down to its studs; the water heater disappeared, carpeting had been pulled up, the kitchen sink had been removed and even the front door had been pulled off its hinges. Police aren’t sure what to do about it, or if a crime has even been committed. If it is, they say, it’s a civil, not a criminal case. Not that I’m tempted to do such a thing myself, by any means. But incidents like this demonstrate the awesome power of Craig.
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I was talking to a guy once who owned a rundown house in another state. He moved because of his job and rented a furnished apartment, meaning to go back and sell the house in a few months if the job worked out.
A few weeks later, he went back home and found that someone had broke the door in and people had been squatting there, drinking and using drugs, apparently. He didn’t have too much stuff he wanted there and what was there was now a bit damaged and the vandals has spraypainted stuff of the walls and spilled stuff on the carpet.
So now he was faced with having to hire a truck to carry everything off to the dump or to Goodwill so he could replace the carpet and repaint before selling it. That seems like a lot of trouble, so he put a sign on the door:
“Door is unlocked. Take anything and everything that you want, but please don’t break anything or damage the house.”
Two weeks later, he went back and the house was completely empty with only a minor bit of new damage, so he threw away what was left and hired someone to paint, repair, and recarpet so he could sell it.
He said that it was cheaper and easier than trying to fight it.
posted by Christopher Palmer on 4-6-2007 at 2:54 pm
yeah, they tend to be termites if you let them. but they definitely heed the call…i had to get rid of a bed w/in 12 hrs. once & some guy from bensonhurst was more than happy to schlep it away in his truck.
posted by Becky on 4-6-2007 at 5:56 pm
What? No one took the mailbox?
posted by Jim on 4-7-2007 at 2:10 am
I saw that on the news last night. I felt so bad for the woman :( The news said that the person who posted the add might have held out a grudge against the woman. Behold the destructive power of grudges.
posted by Rebecka on 4-9-2007 at 1:39 pm
There is a lot more to this story:
www-DOT-king5-DOT-com/topstories/stories/NW_040907WABcraigslisthouse_scearcyJM.58c6fa7-DOT-html
The two women are sisters. There was no legal eviction; just a ‘kickin-out’. The two don’t get along and have filed domestic violence protection orders against each other in the past.
“Raye won’t say why she evicted Scearcy and said she doesn’t believe her sister placed the ad. ‘She’s not smart enough,’ she said.”
The article does not say that there is no crime: “Tacoma police are still investigating but have said the sibling rivalry is one of the reasons they’re not looking at this as a criminal case. They say it’s a civil matter.” I gather that they could file charges, but are not going to because of the history between these two.
Last, Craigslist has stated that they will reveal the identity of the poster, if they are served with a subpoena.
posted by n2y2 on 4-9-2007 at 5:07 pm