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Craigslist Ad Costs Man Huge Property Loss

POSTED: 11:57 am PDT March 24, 2008
UPDATED: 7:25 am PDT March 25, 2008

An Oregon man said hoax ads on the Web site Craigslist.org cost him nearly everything he owned.

Robert Salisbury, who lives in the southern Oregon town of Jacksonville, said someone posted an ad on the Web site that offered up all of Salisbury’s belongings for free.

He wasn’t home when people showed up to his house and loaded items into their cars.

Salisbury became aware of the problem when a woman called him to ask about his horse. On his way home, Salisbury then saw people passing him with trailers full of his belongings.

Once home, he was greeted by close to 30 people rummaging through his barn and front porch.

The trespassers, armed with printouts of the ad, tried to brush him off. "They honestly thought that because it appeared on the Internet it was true," Salisbury said. "It boggles the mind."

Jacksonville police and Jackson County sheriff's deputies arrived but by then several cars packed with Salisbury's property had fled.

He turned some license plate numbers over to police.

Detectives have contacted Craigslist.org to try to trace the ad.

Many Of Man's Items Still Missing After Craigslist Hoax

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