Arizona

House cleaner sold victim’s appliances on Craigslist:

This is how bad the economy has gotten.

Mr. Funky Haircut over there is 39-year-old Jamie Pantastico of Mesa, Arizona. He was contracted by the dreaded Fannie Mae to clean foreclosed houses. He cleaned them all right. More like cleaned them out.

Pantastico would take pictures of the appliances in the house then put them up for sale on craigslist. When potential buyers would show up he would act like he was the homeowner.

Once again craigslist has become the fence of choice among swindlers and criminals.

Wildlife cruelty postings are illegal, just plain wrong:

This just shows you what kind of lowlifes post in the craigslist forums.

In Tuscon someone posted on the craigslist forums bragging of poisoning and shooting wildlife illegally. The posts are now being investigated by the Arizona Fish and Game Department.

I wonder how long it will be before a serial killer starts bragging on craigslist.

Family Of Nine Loses Savings Because Of Craigslist Rental Scam:

Another family has been taken by the craigslist rental scam. An family from Peoria, Arizona was new to the area and found a rental home on craigslist that was too good to be true. As expected it was too good to be true.

They met a couple who called themselves Jim and Jaime Williams who they forked over $1500 to.

Then when the family tried to move in they met the actual owner. Luckily the real owners worked something out with the family to let them stay there.

As far as the “Williamses” go…

Peoria Arizona police are asking for the public’s help in looking for the scam artists responsible. They are described as “a short heavyset woman and a man with crooked teeth and a heart tattooed on one hand. They were last seen driving a white Chevy Blazer.”

The article recommends checking with the county first to see who actually owns a rental property.

Woman Searches for Husband’s Killer Online:
I guess craigslist isn’t all bad.

23-year-old Katherine Coronel of Arizona is using it, alongside Backpage and MySpace, to help find the person that killed her husband in a hit and run.

In ads on the bulletin board Web sites Craigslist and Backpage and on her MySpace page, Katherine Coronel, mother of two and six months pregnant with a third child, is hoping the public can do what the police have been unable to — find the person who killed her husband, Eddy Mediavilla, while he was changing a tire.

The incident that killed Mediavilla occurred as the couple drove home southbound at around 2:45 a.m. on Interstate 17 between Flagstaff and Phoenix on Oct. 28, and pulled over to fix a flat tire.

Within seconds, Coronel said she went from thinking about the fixer-upper in the mountains they had looked to buy that day to trying to give her husband CPR.

Coronel described the car that hit her husband three weeks before his 23rd birthday as “a dark-colored, 1980s sedan.”

The car that hit Mediavilla, she said, “stopped for a second, backed up and then ran off.”

If anybody has the links to Ms. Coronel’s ads and MySpace I’ll be more than happy to post them.

Man arrested trying to sell stolen motorcycle on Craigslist:
21-year-old Stephen George Sorenson of Gilbert, Arizona was arrested for selling a stolen motorcycle on craigslist. He even admitted to undercover police that he thought the bike was stolen.

At about 10 p.m., two undercover detectives arrived at Sorenson’s residence acting as potential buyers and matched the VIN with the records of the stolen motorcycle. They also saw that the motorcycle’s factory markings had been covered with black spray paint. Sorenson told them he suspected it was stolen and that’s why he lowered his asking price. Even after police suggested that he turn it over to authorities or dump it, Sorenson offered to sell it to them for $1,000. Other officers then arrived to arrest him.

There’s nothing like making the cops’ jobs easier.

Sellers Beware on Craigslist:
Another article warning about the dangers of the overpaid check scam. As long as people keep falling for this I’ll keep posting them. Luckily this couple wasn’t that stupid.

A couple from Mesa wrote to us about a washer and dryer they had put up for sale on Craigslist. Within minutes a seller contacted them and offered to buy the washer and dryer. He sent them a check for $2500. He claimed that his secretary made a mistake by sending them a check for $2500 instead of the $600 that they were asking for the washer and dryer. He wanted them to wire $1900 back to him.

The couple from Mesa said they knew that once they wired the money they would probably never see it again.

Good for them for having smarts but people still fall for this routine. The article has a quote that gives the best advice possible.

Think about it.

If you mistakenly sent a stranger too much money, would you trust them to send the rest back? Doubtful. You’d stop payment on the check if you could.

Word.