Legal Research

What would you do if you came home one day and found a mob of 30 people looting your home? Robert Salisbury, a Jacksonville, Oregon contractor, faced such a crowd and it appears that the Internet is to blame. Someone placed an announcement on Craigslist stating that Salisbury was moving and that everything was up for grabs -- and grab they did. The distraught  homeowner said "I informed them I was the owner, but they refused to give the stuff back, they showed me the Craigslist printout and told me they had the right to do what they did." Eventually, the local constabulary arrived, but not before several cars and trucks filled with Salisbury's possession had fled the scene. Read the full Seattle Times article here.

This incident is eerily similar to one that took place about a year ago in Tacoma, Washington. In that case the police were successful in tracking down the author of the bogus ad and she was later charged with second-degree burglary, malicious mischief and criminal impersonation. Read the full Seattle Times article here.

Original link in the decidedly non-legal blog, BoingBoing