TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: Classifieds Crime

  • Another Mass. man busted on craigslist

    Another Mass. man busted on craigslist

    Man Accused Of Trying To Lure Teen For Sex:

    Another guy from Massachusetts was allegedly caught soliciting underage sex on craigslist. This time it’s married father of two, Fred Newhall III of Uxbridge. He posted an ad looking for a teenage “house cleaner”. What he ended up getting was Auburn Police Detective James Lyman posing as a 15-year-old girl.

    “He gave me a price list. If you clean, you get this. If there’s light touching, that’s how much you get. Right up to full contact being $500 a day,” Lyman said.

    Lyman said Newhall made the ultimate promise.

    “He told her if she was submissive and did everything he told her, he’d buy her a new vehicle for her birthday,” Auburn Police Chief Andrew Sluckis.

    Newhall arranged for a meeting with the girl at a house in Auburn. But when he got there, he didn’t find a 15-year-old girl; he met a police officer.

    “He had alcohol and he had some sort of massage oil. He knew what he was going to do,” Lyman said.

    Realizing the sting, Newhall allegedly pushed the police officer and ran. It took seven police officers to catch and handcuff him.

    I have no sympathy for scumbags like this. Especially ones that are supposed to be fathers.

  • Memphis discovers craigslist sex ads

    Memphis discovers craigslist sex ads

    Selling Sex Online:

    It seems that the Memphis media has heard about craigslist hookers. In their blistering expose they inform a local busybody about the existence of craigslist prostitution and, of course, he’s outraged about it. The article even goes so far as to call the people placing ads “perverts”…

    One Memphis man said he would make a generous offer to a mother and daughter who would have sex with him.

    Some perverts bold enough to post their phone number on their ad. We responded anonymously to a couple of the ads and got responses back within five minutes.

    All in all, this article is quite humorous for its naivety, but this part I found kind of disturbing…

    We sent an email to the CEO of Craigslist to ask why these ads are allowed on the website when it clearly states in their terms of use pornographic pictures or messages are not allowed on the site. Jim Buckmaster never emailed us back.

    So if it’s against craigslist’s TOS, why do they allow it to continue?

  • Teen prostitutes uncovered in Chicago

    Teen prostitutes uncovered in Chicago

    Women charged with offering girls for sex:

    I’ll give you 3 guesses of which website they were advertising on. I’ll give you a hint. It rhymes with gregslist.

    Cook County Sheriffs in Illinois conducted a Craigslist prostitution sting which resulted in finding prostitutes ages 14, 15 and 16-years-old. Those charged in separate incidents were Tamara Cotton, 25, who was charged with keeping a place of prostitution and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and one count of pimping and child endangerment. Christina Holt, 19, who is charged with keeping a house of prostitution. Holt’s boyfriend, Montrell Knight, 34, who was storing guns and drugs for the Gangster Disciples, was charged with nine counts of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, armed violence, and three drug-related charges.

    The teen prostitutes themselves are not being treated as criminals, and Cook County is trying to get them help.

    So what does craigslist have to say about this?

    Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster wrote in an e-mail Thursday that illegal activity is prohibited on the site, and that the erotic services page is intended for use by “legal escort services and sensual massage providers.”

    “It was added at the request of our users, who wanted these ads separated from our general personals categories,” he wrote. “We appreciate and are fully cooperative with law enforcement efforts.”

    Legal escort services and sensual massage providers? Take it from someone who grew up in a town rife with prostitution, there is no such animal as “legal” escort services and sensual massage.

    Once again, craigslist is turning a blind eye to illegal activity on their site. They say that they’re fully cooperative with law enforcement, but it seems to me that it’s after the fact.

    Thanks to Tim for the link.

  • Portland craigslist predator sentenced

    Portland craigslist predator sentenced

    Offender sentenced for Craigslist teen sex charges:

    I originally posted about Douglas French here. He’s the 36-year-old jackhole that put an ad on craigslist for models aged 16-19 and had sex with a 17-year-old girl who applied for the ad. He also supplied her with drugs and alcohol.

    French had a previous arrest for shacking up with a 16-year-old runaway in Montana. He pleaded not guilty back in August, but a judge found him guilty of using a child in a sexual display and sex abuse. He was sentenced to 15 years.

  • craigslist crackdown

    craigslist crackdown

    Craigslist Turns to Police, Community to Fight ‘Spamvertising’:

    It seems that craigslist is finally getting serious about people who are abusing the site’s service. It’s not drug dealers. It’s not prostitutes or sexual predators. It’s advertisers…

    Craigslist is serious about cracking down on advertisers that are breaking the site’s rules: It has added new tools to allow community members to flag offending posts, and it has enlisted the aid of the police and ISP-tracking services.

    Craigslist has been inundated with “professional marketers” trying to circumvent the classified ad site’s rules and market products and services to the community, ClickZ reports. The problem has become so rampant that coders are creating software that automatically creates listings, and others are writing books aimed at helping marketers sell on Craigslist.

    Way to clean up your act, craigslist.

  • People in glass houses

    People in glass houses

    Craigslist exec strives to keep the Internet neutral:

    Jim Buckmaster is the CEO of craigslist. He’s concerned about Net Neutrality. Basically, proponents of Net Neutrality want the government to step in and prevent ISP’s from creating tiered levels of service, with the premium-priced tier providing faster service to highly trafficked websites. Personally, I’d prefer the government to stay out of the internet, but that’s neither here nor there.

    Mr. Buckmaster would like the government to get involved.

    I guess I would say I’m cautiously optimistic that lawmakers will do the right thing, although it seems in a lot of cases that these things get decided according to who puts forward the most lobbying and the most campaign contributions, he said. Since the phone companies have played this game for decades, they certainly have an advantage there.

    Mr. Buckmaster should be careful in invoking the name of our government and should be more concerned with cleaning up his own house. MySpace has already felt the wrath of state and federal governments due to the controversy that surrounds it. With craigslist’s reputation for drug dealing, prostitution, robberies, and assaults, it’s only a matter of time before someone in the government decides to regulate craigslist.

  • craigslist babysitter was a level 3 sex offender

    craigslist babysitter was a level 3 sex offender

    Neighbor catches sex offender seeking babysitting job on Craigslist:

    Gather ’round and listen to the tale of John Gilbert Gray. A level 3 Washington State sex offender who thought he was pretty slick. His original crime was for the sexual assault of a 21-year-old woman. When he got out, he told authorities he was homeless. In actuality, he was living with his wife in an apartment. The reason was that if he reported as homeless, a sex offender notification would not be distributed around the neighborhood.

    And he would have gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for those meddling housewives. And the fact that he took an ad out on craigslist for BABYSITTING!!!

    But a young mother in Gray’s neighborhood, who fears retaliation and wants to remain anonymous, says she was checking Craigslist, and found an ad for babysitting that made her suspicious.

    “We decided out of the blue to check it up on Washington State sex offender’s list and lo and behold there was his face,” the mother said.

    In the neighborhood, the woman says Gray went by the name “Logan”. She says she and other mothers were alarmed to realize Gray is a level three-sex offender — the highest risk to re-offend — and that he and his wife were advertising to babysit.

    So she reported him.

    For his efforts, Gray is looking at a year in the pokey.

    I really wonder what made him think that babysitter was the logical career choice for a sex offender trying to hide from authorities. Did he think that no parent would do any kind of background check on him? Not to mention the fact that hiring a babysitter from craigslist is not the most logical choice for a parent.

  • ‘Tis the season to get robbed on craigslist

    ‘Tis the season to get robbed on craigslist

    CRAIGSLIST SHOPPER MACED AND ROBBED OF $2,000:

    Is anyone else besides me starting to notice a pattern here?

    Fremont police hope to take a pair of would-be entrepreneurs into custody for using the popular classifieds Web site Craigslist for a robbery ruse, police reported today.

    An unidentified victim answered an ad on the Web site for a 46-inch television on Wednesday. The sellers brought the television over to his house on Grimmer Blvd. and immediately set it up to prove that it worked, according to Fremont police.

    The victim told police he went straight to the bank to take out $2,000 to purchase the television. When he came back, however, the suspects attacked him with mace and took the money and the television.

    Yet, you never hear of any proposed legislation for the safety of craigslist users. I wonder why that is.

  • One media outlet picks up on craigslist crime spree

    One media outlet picks up on craigslist crime spree

    Craigslist Criminals: The Site’s New Danger:

    Finally, someone in the media recognizes the dangers of craigslist.

    PORTLAND- Craigslist, the fee-free website based out of San Francisco, allows users to post items they wish to buy and sell without providing identification, a policy that is beginning to cause problems.

    Portland Police say thieves are using the site to sell stolen goods. They warn: if the price is too good to be true, it probably is.

    Myles Wright has been searching for the thief who stole his $4,000 handmade trailer. Someone took it from his yard several months ago. Wright had been checking Craigslist to see if anyone was trying to sell his trailer and networking with others selling trailers to see if they had any information.

    His research paid off. Police arrested Forrest Green in connection with the theft. Green has allegedly been stealing trailers and using Craigslist to sell them. Wright’s trailer has not yet been recovered.

    Except they’re only scratching the surface. Stolen goods are only the tip of the iceberg. Let’s not leave out prostitution, rape, child molestation, robbery, and drug pushers.

  • Oakland craigslist assault

    Oakland craigslist assault

    Police: Oakland Student Raped, Attacker Met Online:

    You know, while all the soccer moms and do-gooders are ranting and raving about MySpace, craigslist keeps sneaking in under the radar…

    (AP) OAKLAND An Alameda man is under arrest for allegedly raping a graduate student who answered a classified ad on a popular Web site.

    Police say a 31-year-old student at Mills College in Oakland was raped Thursday night after answering an ad on Craigslist offering modelling jobs.

    49-year-old Gregory Hayes was picked up by police Friday morning after the woman spotted him at a gas station near campus.

    Police say the woman sent her alleged attacker e-mails and talked to him on the phone before he arrived at her on-campus residence claiming he had a gun and raped her in his van.

    Hayes asked for a lawyer after his arrest and refused to talk to investigators. Police are investigating whether he met other women on Craigslist.

    At least MySpace is making attempts to keep their userbase safe. Craigslist doesn’t do anything.