If it’s on the Internet then it must be true; just like how you too can claim your free laptop or iPod, yeah.  A man in Jacksonville, Oregon returned home to find people carting anything that wasn’t bolted down off his property.  The reason was because of a hoax on Craigslist.

I’ll admit, I’ve never used Craigslist and never plan to do so; eBay is the safer choice of the two services.  The ads on Craigslist appeared on Saturday, March 22.  The man, identified as Robert Salisbury found most of his belongings carted off by naive Internet users.

According to KGW News, things taken included: ladders, lawn mowers, weed eaters, various other tools, a porch swing and even his horse, yes, his horse.  The ad claimed the horse, “had been declared abandoned by the sheriff’s department and was free to a good home.”

Salisbury said, “They honestly thought that because it appeared on the Internet it was true, it boggles the mind.”  It sure does.

The Jackson county Sheriff’s department says that no charges will be filed against anyone who is willing to return items that belong to Salisbury.  Anyone that doesn’t will face prosecution but the penalty will depend on what the person decides not to return.

By late Monday (March 24) afternoon, the taken items were beginning to “pile up” in his driveway.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 12:01 pm under Advertising, Ecommerce, Uncategorized.

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.
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