August 2007

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Clackamas man assaulted by man on Craigslist:

A couple from Clackamas, Oregon were assaulted at their home when they arranged to buy a car on craigslist. They agreed to meet the seller in Portland but the seller never showed. When the couple returned home their driveway was blocked off with trashcans.

They had told the seller their home address during the initial contact and they had thousands of dollars in cash with them to pay for the car.

Not the brightest move on their part but I digress…

A guy in a ski mask jumped out and smashed out the car window causing some lacerations to one of the victims. Luckily that’s all the injuries their were and the couple escaped.

The best part?

The couple said they will shop again on Craigslist.org, but more cautiously.

Um…ok.

As Web Fuels Bike Thefts, Victims Turn Vigilantes:

This is a pretty interesting article about the problem of bicycle thefts in Washington D.C. and how the stolen bikes turn up on craigslist. It also tells the story about how one man took the law into his own hands to get his bike back. That part of the story isn’t as exciting as it sounds.

10News Investigates Craigslist Home Rental Scam:

Check out what happens when a local San Diego news station tries to confront a group of craigslist rental scammers.

After being confronted by the 10News I-Team, the group decided to leave.

They were in such a hurry to leave, their car struck I-Team photojournalist Michael Gonzalez.

“At the moment I was standing in front of the vehicle and I realized the guy was going to go, I moved out of the way and apparently he struck the camera guy and took off,” said witness Miguel Samaniego.

The incident could have been worse, but Gonzalez is OK.

Give that man a bonus. Or maybe some hazard pay.

Craigslist Apartment Scam Suspect Arrested:

Police in Austin, Texas have arrested Francisco David Garza. He’s been scamming college kids into renting apartments on craigslist. The problem is Garza didn’t own or rent the apartments.

A local real estate agent has some helpful tips.

“If you’re gonna sublease with somebody, you want to be very diligent about it,” said David Kline of Kline Properties. “You should ask to see their copy of their lease, and go and talk with the owner and make sure that the owner approves of the sublease. Anytime that you’re subleasing a unit, you are not going to be putting an additional deposit down. Your are not going to be putting additional rent down.”

Hartland woman arrested for prostitution:

Un unnamed 31-year-old woman from Hartland, WI was arrested for prostitution after offering sex for money to an undercover cop.

Hartland police were tipped off to the woman’s alleged prostitution after a detective with the Oconomowoc Police Department discovered an ad for the woman’s services on the Milwaukee branch of Craigslist, a popular local classified Web site, said Detective Adam Mueller with the Hartland Police Department. The ad allegedly offered hourly and half-hour rates for “peer pleasure” from a “real and serious” provider, Mueller said.

Here’s the part I don’t get.

The Hartland woman has not been charged with a crime and the case is under review by Waukesha County Assistant District Attorney Lesli Boese.

They must be really bored in Hartland to review a case like this for that long.

UPDATE: It turns out her name is Tonya M. Karimi and this isn’t her first brush with the law on these charges.

Man finds his stolen trailer on Craigslist:

Rodney Middleton, 37, and Michelle Perreault, 35, have been arrested by the RCMP after stealing a British Columbia man’s flatbed trailer and trying to sell it on craigslist. The victim recognized it on craigslist.

I bet that was the easiest arrest the Mounties ever had.

Ad on Craigslist leads to prostitution arrest:

I wonder if news editors are just copying and pasting that headline. It seems to be everywhere.

Anyway today’s contestant is 23-year-old Elizabeth Ann Schmidtke. Come on down!!!

BUFFALO GROVE–An advertisement on Craigslist.com led to the arrest of a Loves Park woman Tuesday for alleged prostitution in northwest suburban Buffalo Grove.

A Buffalo Grove police officer located an online ad that appeared to offer prostitution services in the area, according to a release from police. An undercover officer contacted the listed telephone number and was told to meet the female caller, later identified as Elizabeth Ann Schmidtke, 23, at the Extended Stay America Hotel at 1525 Busch Parkway, the release said.

During the course of their meeting, Schmidtke allegedly offered to perform a sex act for a fee. At that time, the undercover officer identified himself as a police officer, and placed Schmidtke under arrest. Schmidtke, of Loves Park, was charged with prostitution, a Class A misdemeanor, and also had an outstanding arrest warrant for failing to appear on a DUI charge in Winnebago County, the release said.

A hooker living in Loves Park? Who would have thought?

Mayor rips craigslist over child prostitution:
Finally a politician has noticed the wretched hive of scum and villainy that craigslist has become. And if anybody knows anything about scum and villainy it’s the mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin. (That was a dig against the city not necessarily the mayor.) Anyway, she has comeout against craigslist accusing them of being facilitators in child prostitution.

“Children are being marketed through craigslist,” Franklin said Tuesday during an update on the mayor’s “Dear John” campaign, a crackdown on the city’s child prostitution industry.

Craigslist, found on the Web at craigslist.org, may be best known as a bulletin board for people who want to sell a car, buy a home or meet people. But Atlanta vice officer Kelleita Thurman said Tuesday that craigslist and similar sites account for 85 percent of the sexual liaisons men arrange in Atlanta with boys and girls.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the company, Franklin said the site could do more to prevent itself from being used “as a means of promoting and enabling child prostitution.” She called on the site to revise its warning on pages for erotic services and personal ads and to remove postings that offer sexual services for sale, among other things.

As usual craigslist had their same non-answers…

Craigslist spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best said in an e-mail that she and Chief Executive Officer Jim Buckmaster are in Europe and “neither of us are aware of such a letter so it would not be possible to comment about this.”

Company founder Craig Newmark, who also was mailed Franklin’s letter, no longer is involved in the company’s daily affairs and is traveling, Best said.

Maybe this is the first step in politicians recognizing what a crime filled scumhole craigslist’s erotice services section is.

Police seek link in two robberies involving strippers:
Police in the San Luis Obispo area of California are on the lookout for suspects who are believed to be involved in two robberies involving “strippers” that advertise on craigslist.

The San Luis Obispo robbery happened after two men called an exotic dancer, Princess Exstasy, they found on the online classified site Craigslist.

The dancer agreed to a price for a 30-minute performance, and one of the men gave her directions to their apartment in the 600 block of Chorro Street, according to a search warrant.

About 20 minutes later, someone knocked on the apartment door and two men barged in.

“One of the suspects hit (one of the victims) on the head and knocked him to the ground,” the search warrant showed. “One of the suspects pointed a gun at (the victim) and told him not to look at him.”

One assailant wore a black ski mask and the other a black hooded sweatshirt. They fished through the victims’ pockets before taking a wallet in the apartment. They left through the front door.

The stripper never showed.

The more recent robbery happened when a man called a stripper to perform about 4:30 a.m. at a motel in the 2400 block of Main Street in Morro Bay.

The stripper came to the room and performed for at least two men. She was paid $160 and then left, the victim told police, according to a search warrant.

Later that morning, two men forced their way into the motel room.

“The suspects then demanded money and exposed the butt of a 9 mm handgun, assaulted the victims, then left the motel with both of the victims’ money,” according to the search warrant.

One of the men suffered a broken nose, said Morro Bay police Detective Leslie Daily.

Police are still looking for two men they believe are involved in the crime.

Grace Rosemary, whose address is listed in court records as a San Luis Obispo post office box, was arrested on suspicion of robbery. Daily said she was connected to the crime but did not elaborate on her role.

The alleged stripper, Barbara Bowden Degennaro, 49, was also arrested in connection with the crime, according to Daily.

If you want to see strippers then go a strip club. What these victims thought they were getting were more or less hookers. And when you deal with criminals other criminal activity is likely to follow.

Prostitution sting nets former political spokesman:

Police arrested a former spokesman for Gov. Arne Carlson and Sen. Rudy Boschwitz in a prostitution sting after he allegedly arranged for sex on the Craigslist Web site.

Police cited Tim Droogsma, of Red Wing, with a misdemeanor charge of engaging in prostitution and jailed him for about 12 hours before releasing him on his own recognizance early Wednesday. He was one of seven men arrested on Tuesday in the sting.

“Obviously I’m deeply embarrassed by this allegation, which is not true, and which is the result of a severe misunderstanding, and I look forward to making my case in court,” Droogsma said in a written statement.

Uh huh. Sure.

Anyway, I wonder if this will finally attract political attention for craigslist or will politicians keep beating the dead horse of MySpace.

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