35 People Reveal Their Most Bizarre Experiences On Craigslist

We all know Craigslist can be sketchy at times, but it's hard to turn down a good deal. Sometimes its worth dealing with a weirdo for fifteen minutes to get the perfect couch for your new apartment, or video games so cheap you're gonna ignore the fact they're probably stolen.

Other times however, not so much... Here, 35 people share their craziest Craigslist stories. Enjoy! And check out the links at the bottom for even more.

Fake Troll

Once, I posted an ad trying to give away a dresser for free. My husband made a fake account and then trolled me for almost a week. He kept asking me to smell it and describe the smell and silly things like that. By the time I figured out I was being trolled he was asking if I could cut the dresser into more manageable pieces so it could fit onto his motorcycle.

drcatlove

Air Conditioner

I sold an air conditioner on craigslist. I listed it for $60, and let the guy talk me down to $40. But when we met up, he handed me a wad with 27 one dollar bills and starts putting the a/c in his car.

Obviously, I asked for the rest of my money, and he just said, “That’s all I have, you don’t want me to drive all the way out here for nothing.” I ended up standing behind his car so he couldn’t back out until he gave me the rest of the cash. The kicker is that the car he was driving was a newer model 5 series BMW.

JoshSidekick

Stray Kitten

My husband found a stray kitten and brought him home, but he didn’t end up getting along with the two cats we have already. I put him on CL, and this young woman wants to come by and get him. She came over by herself, and had apparently zero qualms about just walking in the front door without knocking. She was just suddenly there in the living room. Scared the absolute heck out of us.

She did take the kitten, though.

AuroraLux

Atari Jaguar

I agreed to meet with this guy once to buy an Atari Jaguar (I’m a collector). I get to his house at the agreed time, and there’s no one there. I send him an e-mail while hanging out in my car, and he says he had to get groceries, but will be back in a few minutes.

I decide to sit on the hood of my car and wait. His neighbors walk outside and yell to me: “Hey man, you waiting on Jamal for games or narcotics?”

“J-Just games!” At this point, I kinda wanted to book it out of there, but he pulled up to the house right as I fumbled with my keys. In all, the guy was a little creepy, and was a complete butt to his daughter. His wife seemed nice enough, though. Got the Atari, and got the heck out of there.

DocOcarin

More than weird

Not so much a horror story as just weird.

I went to look at a couch in a nice residential neighborhood. The poster was a doctor at a local hospital who said she had a shift but I could work out a time with her husband, who would be home. So I called him. He had a beautiful accent (Persian?) and was clearly fluent, but English was not his strong suit. Still, we worked out a time.

When I went over, he was very nice. A bit of a communication gap, but that’s fine. I wish I spoke one-and-a-half languages, you know? The couch was actually a huge, multipiece, turquoise brocade thing. Much too big for my tiny space and too loud for my eyeballs to bear every day. Beautiful, in its own way, but not for me. So I thanked him for his time, told him it was too big for my studio. And his response was to confidently reach around and squeeze my butt.

It was the way he did it that was weird. It didn’t even seem gross or anything. It was like he was just testing a melon for ripeness. I looked at him like he was nuts, he looked back at me like the situation was perfectly normal, and I turned and walked out the door without a word. I no longer go to CL meets on my own.

Mamapalooza

Big City

I was new to a big city and decided I didn’t need my car anymore. I listed my car for sale – a 6 year old Honda Accord.

A normal, well-dressed man comes over to see it after a few phone calls about it. He’s in his early 40s and his name is James. He’s buying it for his daughter in college.

I always have my guard up when dealing with strangers, but so far James is personable and seems legitimate. He test drives it with me in it. He does a thorough inspection. He negotiates the price with me for a while. He asks me to hold the car for two days so he can get the money and come pick it up. I agree – a two day hold where I won’t sell it to someone else.

Two days later, James follows up and we meet again – mid day, normal neighborhood in an urban city. James and I test drive the car one more time. He gives me a Chase Bank cashiers check, which I said was fine. I tell him he needs to come to the bank with me to cash this check and to get the title notarized over to him. This is when he starts acting nervous. We’re pulled over on the side of my street discussing this – James in the driver seat and me as the passenger. I figured if he was gonna steal my car he would have two days earlier. Now I’m fairly comfortable with him. He asks me to do one more car inspection with him then we’d go to the bank. I agree but I’m very set on doing the transaction at a bank. As we both get out to inspect the car again he jumps back in and floors it as I try to get back in with him. He pulls away quicker than I can react, passenger door wide open.

I tried to run after him and then realized I’m not as fast as a car. There are bystanders and I hysterically ask someone to call 911. One guy does (I had my phone but my adrenaline was through the roof and didn’t even think of it). As I’m on a stranger’s phone with dispatch, an undercover cop car with two officers pulls out of an ally 5 feet from me. I wave them down and hysterically explain my story. They tell me to hop in the back of their car, which I do.

I implore them to hurry and we can catch this guy – he just drove off. I explain the car and plate and everything. They assure me that they will not go on a high speed chase with me in the car but will radio it in to all surrounding officers, which they do.

The guy gets away and the officers drop me off at the police station to file a report. I file an insurance claim too and am so mad at myself for letting this happen. I suppose it’s better than if I was in the car with this guy, but I’m still mad. Of course, “James'” burner cell phone doesn’t work as soon as he had left.

I go through insurance and their protocols to ensure I’m not committing fraud for about 3 months. The week I’m supposed to get paid, I get a call from police. They found my car… 3 states over.

“James” was working with a partner in crime (don’t remember his name, let’s call him Josh). James stole the car and gave it to Josh to sell so it wasn’t traceable back to James and Josh would have plausible deniability if he was ever questioned. Well Josh sold my car to an Average Joe who actually did have a daughter in college who needed a car. The daughter tried to register her new car at the DMV and it came up as stolen. So the cops arrange for me, the Average Joe, and Josh (whose contact info Average Joe had, as he paid him with a check and there was a paper trail) to meet with them at the station for a little chat.

Josh denies any involvement with James but agrees to give us the money back that average Joe paid him if he can just leave without any problems. We all agree to this. Average Joe and I say his daughter can keep the car and I’ll take the money from Josh.

So eventually I got paid for my car. But this experience sucked balls and was very stressful. Since then I have bought and sold cars on Craigslist again. So no lesson was learned (except now I take a photo of the drivers license of all people I interact with at the start).

blinkanboxcar182

PTSD

I got GTA V for the PS3, but then got a PS4 about two weeks later since I got surprised by an extra large paycheck and had money to blow. So I decided to sell my PS3 copy for $40. As soon as I put the listing up, I legit got a text not even ten minutes later for a guy that wanted to meet in half an hour to pick it up. I wasn’t busy, so I decided to do it. The guy was about ten years older than me, incredibly skinny (to the point of ribs practically showing through his shirt), and had a tick. Anyway, I make the transaction and think that’s the end of it.

Nope.

On my drive home texted me, wanting me to come over to his place and play it with him. I politely decline. He then goes on to text me a novel about his life story and his time serving in Afghanistan and his PTSD and depression. I felt bad for him, but still didn’t want to go hang out with a stranger I meet on craigslist. He then starts asking me when I’d be free to hang out and tries to make plans. I explain politely that I’m not really looking to make friends through craigslist or anything. He tries calling me. I turn off my phone and go to sleep. I turn it back on in the morning and I’ve got twenty-something missed calls and over sixty text messages from him, getting increasingly more angry, violent, and threatening as they went along. I installed an app to block his number and that solved it, but for a good week or two I was afraid of accidentally running into him again.

HuffSomePluff

TV

This isn’t a horror story at all, but the guy I sold a TV to a couple of years ago pretty much assumed that I was going to murder him and his boyfriend. I got the impression that he thought that I was going to scam him so I offered drop the TV off at his house and he could just paypal me the money. He didn’t want me knowing where he lived, so I offered to have him pick it up after my daughter’s soccer game. Wouldn’t do that either, because he said I’d have too many of my “people.” So I then switched it to the parking lot of my town’s grocery store at 3:30pm. Nope. He finally agreed to meet me in front of the town’s police station with his boyfriend and 2 other guys only after he called an officer outside to witness the transaction. The cop told the guy he probably shouldn’t be buying stuff on craigslist anymore. The funny thing was that he brought so many people that the TV wouldn’t fit in his car.

Bmac1977

Sketchy Caller

Was moving out of an apt that had washer and dryer hookups into one that did not. So I sold my washer and dryer. Ended up having separate buyers. Guy who bought the dryer was great, he was getting it for his daughter who was going to college, I helped him load it up in his truck, he gave me the payment, and I never heard from him again.

The guy who bought the washer was a different story. I got a text from him, asking if it was still available, we haggled the price, all normal stuff. We set a time, and I waited for him to get there.

Now I only had 1 week left in the apt so I didn’t care too much about random people coming to my home like I normally would. Pretty much all of my stuff was moved into my new place but the internet wasn’t turned on yet, so I was still just sleeping on an air mattress in the old one for the time being. He ended up being a few hours late and showed up in a truck that was used for transporting large glass panes. He had like 5 people with him all crammed onto the front bench seat of the truck. They loaded it onto the truck with it leaning at a 30-degree angle against the glass pane rack(or whatever you would call it). He tried to haggle it down to a lower price, but I didn’t budge. He left and I thought it was done.

Later that night I start getting texts from him about how it doesn’t work and he wants his money back. I told him as it was written in the post that it was sold as is, and was working. I assume he damaged it in the way he rigged it on his truck. Well after a day he starts calling me and cussing me out, texting death threats, and I have other random numbers calling me doing that same. Two nights after I sold it I wake up at 3 am with people banging on my door yelling. Luckily I lived on the second floor with no easy access to the windows. I sat there for about 15 mins while they continue to yell through the door. The next day I moved the rest of my stuff into my new apt and never went back other than to turn the keys in. I still got call calls/ texts from him on random numbers for 2 months over a $150 washer.

I don’t sell stuff on craigslist anymore.

thewootshoot

97 Corvette

The closest I have was when I was selling a 97 Corvette on CL in 2012. It was in good shape and mechanically sound. I knew what the car was worth and had it priced fairly at 15K. I start getting hits from a guy who lives about an hour away from the car and eventually he wants to see it. So we meet half-way in a Walmart parking lot, he leaves me the keys to his Denali and takes it for a spin with his wife, still manages to do a big burnout on his way out which, whatever, that’s what those cars are for. He comes back and asks if I would take 14.5K, I say sure, we plan to meet there again next week, I say I want cashiers check and he should bring his license so we can do a bill of sale as I would be pulling the plates. Fast forward the next weekend, we meet up again, he says he wants another test drive before he pulls the trigger. I say go for it when he hands me the keys to his Denali and off he goes again. 20 minutes later her rolls back up and says, I don’t know something feels off, can’t put his finger on it. I as what it is or could be, he says he just doesn’t quite know. I ask him what he wants to do, and he offers me 12K. At that point I laughed at him and throw him his keys and say, let me know if you change your mind as I hop back in my car. Then he stops me and says, no, I do want it, what about 13. At this point, I realize he either brought all the money or he isn’t going to buy it so I say, the 14.5 we agreed on or deals off. He pulls out a cashiers check for 12K and then gives me the other 2500 in cash, so he had planned such an attack. Oh well, turned out fine for me, it just bothers me people are always up for trying weasel you out of money.

Hobby_Man

Used Keurig

Bought a Keurig on Craigslist.

Used it for a couple of days, started noticing coffee grounds in my cup. Ignored it.

Saw a cockroach in my kitchen, and found out it was coming from the keurig. Took a flashlight to the inside, and it was infested with a nest of cockroaches.

It wasn’t coffee grounds in my cup.

CougarAries

Craigslist Will Show You

I thought I was interested in boys and girls for the longest time because I always had an interest in guys since high school. Not in any other way than I wanted to try giving head.

Well, sure enough, I took to good old Craigslist to find a suitor for my request. Found a guy, texted, and he drove down and I met him in his car.

Now it wasn’t really anything but a simple transaction, just a blow and go type arrangement. But I realized as soon as I put it in my mouth that I was without a doubt, 100%, undeniably straight. The thing is, he didn’t take too kindly to me not finishing him and said that he had put the child locks on the door and I wasn’t allowed to leave.

Thankfully either he forgot or was bluffing but I tried the door and booked it into someone’s backyard.

jollydonutpirate

Horns

In college I was doing a project that involved horns from animals (like deer and cows) and I found a website with contact info for a guy about four hours away from me that sold them at a reasonable price. I called him regarding shipping but he told me (in an incredibly thick Indian accent) that since I was pretty close he would just let me drive up and pick out the exact ones I wanted.

So I made the four hour trek up to his house, by myself like a idiot, and this guy and his wife take me to the basement and show me shelves upon shelves of different types of antlers and horns and such. The guy is just standing over me the whole time, LITERALLY breathing down my neck until I picked out the ones I wanted. I was super creeped out at this point, so I tried to high-tail it out of there, but as I was leaving, the wife stopped me and said that she was just finishing making dinner and that I should stay and eat with them. I felt a little bad saying no and I was absolutely starving, so I agreed to stay, and I had an incredibly uncomfortable meal with this guy, who was just staring at me the whole time, his wife, and her mother.

anahfreebird

Racing Games

I was in the market for a steering wheel for playing racing games on my PC. They were too expensive for me to buy new so I went to craigslist. It didn’t take too long before I found an ad listing the product that I wanted and at a very fair price. I contacted the seller and arranged a meeting.

When I got to the apartment, there were bags of trash piled up outside the door in the hallway and I could hear yelling inside. I prayed I had the wrong address and knocked on the door. A very young child opens the door. “Is ‘XXXX’ here? I’m here about the craigslist ad.”

The kid says nothing but walks away from the door leaving it open. I can’t see anyone else inside but there are also bags of trash piled up just inside the door. Stepping inside I call out to the seller. An older female voice erupts from a side room. “XXXX!!!!! GET THE DOOR!” Another door opens and out steps a young man in his pajamas. “You XXXX?” I ask. He nods and walks me into his trashed room. I have to shuffle through clothing and belongings on the floor to reach the stained office chair who’s fabric pattern matches nothing in the room.

After testing it, I told him I’d take the unit and he surprised me when he pulled the original box out of the closet and packaged everything up like it was brand new. The coup de grâce to the entire exchange was the argument between him and his mother over who was going to keep the money as I was leaving.

UnholyOsiris

70’s Buick

Was selling a 70’s Buick for $1500. I had a few calls, but no one super interested. Then I had a kid, maybe 21, call and he really wanted the car. I told him $1500, but I was willing to talk about it. He said, ok, I’ll see you at 7:00 pm at this parking lot.

He isn’t there when I show up, and I wait for about thirty minutes. Finally, I’m about to leave and he rolls up in a caprice classic with giant rims on it. The driver gets out, two girls get out of the back, and the kid buying the car gets out of the front. He opens the car, pops the hood, starts it. Checks it all out. He takes it on a quick drive while I am standing with the 2 girls and the driver.

He comes back, hops out of the car and waves me over.

Kid: “I really want this man, this is awesome”

Me: “Ok, well, I would like $1500, but what are you wanting to pay?

Kid: “I was only able to scrape together $1300, but I’ve got a good deal for you. Give it to me for $1250, and you can bang her,” pointing to the skanky brunette. “Or let’s do this for $1000 and you can have them both.”

Me: “I think I’ll take the $1300. Thanks, though.”

He actually gave me $1300 in cash and $155 of it was in ones.

excusemef*cker

Old Couch

My parents gave away an old couch for free to a woman who lived on the 4th floor of an apartment building. She took it from them on one condition- she didn’t want to carry it up the stairs, so she told my parents that she would pay them to bring it up for her. Being both a bit strapped for money and just generally nice people, they agreed.

They bring up the couch while the woman watched, and when they asked for their payment, she asked them, “Do you like roosters?”

Instead of giving them money, she handed them probably the creepiest carved wooden rooster I’ve ever seen. This thing looks like the abyss gazing back at you. Then, she ran back inside. The whole situation was so ridiculous that they weren’t even particularly mad, and it’s still in our house ~13 years later.

itooaminarcadia

Video Games

In 2012, I was trying to sell some video games on craigslist and got plenty of normal emails inquiring about the condition of the games and stuff. Then I get an email that says “hey :)” and there’s a very unexpected picture attached to it. You can probably guess what that picture was.

The body of the email was, “Like what you see? I’d love to meet up.”

Thirty seconds later, I get another email that says “PLEASE DELETE I’M SORRY THAT WAS FOR SOMEONE ELSE” followed by “PLEASE, JUST DELETE IT AND PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED.” I didn’t reply to any of the emails, just blocked him immediately. My thought is he was probably browsing around on two different tabs and replied to mine on accident.

apocalypticradish

These Stories Are Pretty Outrageous…

And there’s more to come! In addition, check out Storyblend.com for more weird stories!

Machine

My youngest brother sent me a text one day. He’d saved up $700 and wanted a computer. I told him “I know a guy we can go to….” but no. He’s found a guy on CL with a machine. Says it’s like a $1000 machine for $600 want me to go with him to check it out. I can’t, schedule is packed.

Guy basically says he can do a video call showing the PC working and I can peek inside the guts from the video call so I do that. It looks good. Very high end computer and everything is brand new with boxes for the components. I tell my little bro (who was 18) that it’s all good, if he can snatch it, go for it.

Well about 8pm I get a skype message from the CL seller. “I got your brother.” I freeze. Blood runs cold and for a solid 20 seconds that felt like hours, I started running through how I was going to find this guy and murder him with my bare hands for threatening to hurt my baby brother.

Finally he finishes typing his second message.

“He wanted to meet in Walmart parking lot. We met up, and I got out to shake his hand and he just…fainted. He’s sitting in my SUV. He woke up once and just passed right back out.”

So I go out, I get out of my car and instantly see why my brother basically pooped his pants. This dude steps around the SUV and is like 9 feet tall (exaggerating, 7 foot and some change) and was so jacked I think he could beat up Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.

I’m a little less paranoid than my brother so I hold my hand out for a shake, we do so and he puts a giant hand on my shoulder and points inside the SUV. I can see my little brother, sitting in the far back seat with his knees on his chest, like a puppy during a thunderstorm.

I chat with the guy, he literally just tried to meet my brother to sell the computer but he actually fainted in terror. He scooped him up and put him in the backseat to rest. It actually happened.

So I open the door and pop my head in. Little brother basically on the verge of tears. Explain the situation to him. He admits that he thought the CL seller was going to beat him up, steal his $800, and possibly touch his bum inappropriately.

I laugh, the seller laughs. I chat with the guy for a bit as my brother is loading the stuff into his car. The guy said he bought computer parts yearly when they went on sale and always sold them for a profit for himself, but at a pretty low cost since he slowly built them over the year. Was actually a REALLY great guy. Said my brother was the first person to ever pass out in fear.

I mean, alls well that ends well, and I’m sure it was scarier from my brothers POV, but getting a message from a guy on Skype “I have your brother.” is pretty dang scary to be honest.

The_Zanester

Subletting

Our roommate sub-leased his room to a guy from craigslist without telling us. The three of us in the house were all around 22 years old. The new guy was 36, unemployed, socially awkward, and a pothead. He would blare Metallica all day and just stay in the house, only leaving at odd hours. Really sketchy.

Then one day my roommate noticed his guitar was missing. And then the other guitar was missing. We confronted him. After about 20 minutes of stupid excuses, he admitted he pawned them for the power bill and he wouldn’t have rent for us. We called the police so we could report the stolen guitars (since you need to have a report to get anything from a pawn shop back). It turns out he already had a warrant out for his arrest for the same stuff a town over.

Anyway, the cops confronted him in our house while he was frantically trying to get all his stuff packed. He was coming down the stairs with all his luggage when the cops asked him to step outside. Right before he went outside to talk to the cops he said, “Don’t take any of my things.” That’s ironic.

Either way, he was arrested and we put his stuff out on the curb.

cityrider

Entertainment Center

I had an entertainment center advertised and a woman asked to come over to have a look at it, we set up a time and when the time came, she didn’t show up. I texted her and a couple hours later she replied and asked if it was too late to come by, it was 10pm but I said ok. She said she would be there in 10 minutes, but wasn’t there 20 minutes later and I texted her again. 10 more minutes, she said, but she hadn’t shown up by 11pm so I texted again and said we would have to do it another day, and she replied that she was just pulling up.

I go to my front door and sure enough she is pulling into the driveway, and there are about 4 or 5 other people in the car with her. They all get out and start walking towards the door and I ask them what they are doing, and the woman says they all want to see the entertainment center. I tell her that only she can come in, and at that point I wasn’t sure I even wanted her to come in. She says she needs at least one other person’s opinion. I say no, she gets indignant and I ask her to leave, and she says that I am not being a very good christian.

I say I am fine with that and went in my house and locked all the doors, peeking out the window. One of the dudes who was with her is peeing at the end of my driveway, but then they get in the car and drive away.

The whole thing was super bizarre.

HurrayforCandy

Juicer

Once I sold a juicer on CL. Ended up dropping it off at this dude’s house. The next day I see a desk for sale that I want. So I inquire. It’s the same dude. Okay, weird coincidence. I go over and the desk isn’t the one pictured. This was a piece of junk that he clearly cobbled together from scraps. He offers it to me for free, so I say yes.

The next day, I get a text from him wanting to know if I want to come over for some drinks. No thanks. Then the next day I find an ad for rims for my exact year, make and model of car. Rim size not mentioned but the car is detailed out. Inquire. Same dude.

I realize at this point that during the course of casual conversation he was picking up on other things I said I wanted and, in the case of the rims, he knew I wanted rims and what model of car I drove. So he was posting ads specifically for me to respond to so I’d come over and “hang out.”

Considering my cell phone was still two area codes behind my moving I decided it was a good time to change my number, the locks on my house and swap the batteries in my stun weapon.

VenBede

Used Washer And Dryer

I was selling a used washer and dryer on CL after the house I bought already had a washer and dryer. So, selling the old ones I brought from my apartment I had them for $100 each which was a steal for the make and model of each with just a single year of use.

I sent additional photos for one buyer and we agreed on $90 each if he bought both.

He shows up in his truck and I’m foolish enough to help him load them in the back of his truck before getting paid. The moment he closed the tailgate of the truck…

“Hey, man. Will you take $70 each?” I told him we already agreed on a price, but he got angry with me for holding him to it saying he already loaded them and did not want to unload them.

I opened his tailgate which made him begin to shout for me to not touch his truck. I ignored him and began undoing the ratchet straps before he pulled out the full $180 in cash, paid me, and drove off shouting at me in front of my neighbors.

WickedPrince

XBOX

I was in my late 20’s. Someone had an Xbox 360 for sale. I emailed him and we agreed to meet up in a park. Turns out to be a kid who was about 14-15 years old. I pay him cash and leave. I get home and turn it on, but the cd drive doesn’t open. I fiddle with it a bit, and realize it’s just broke.

I email him back, and he says something to the effect of “You have to take the face of the Xbox off and push something on the side… then it will open”. Basically, he admitted he knew it was broken, so I tell him I want my money back, and he says no.

I was guessing he was using his real name (first and last) in his email address, so I open the phone book (yes, a phone book) and looked up everybody by that last name in that town. There were less than 10 entries. I dialed the first one and asked if the kid was there. She says “no, this is his Aunts house”.

I politely said, “oh… do you happen to have his home number?” She gives it to me. I find that phone number in the phone book and get the street address. I drive to his house and knock on the door. He answers the door and starts freaking out. “You have to leave! My mom can’t know I sold that!”

I said, “I’m not leaving without my money”.

He says “I already spent it! Get out of here!”

I just laughed, stepped around him, and knocked again on the door until his mom showed up. Turns out she knew the Xbox was broken also. She made him give me the money back (he hadn’t spent it) and I handed over the broken Xbox

TNReb

Compensated Verbal Abuse

Found an ad looking for, in a nutshell, “compensated verbal abuse.” I answered with caution/interest and that’s exactly what it turned out to be. No love making, we’ve never met and it’s not even too creepy anymore. I IM this gentleman once or twice a week, insult him exquisitely and demand he buy me this or that thing and send a link. I set up a PO box and my choice of clothes/shoes/perfume/makeup/lingerie/whatever (within reason – I know what he does for a living and I’m not even remotely breaking him) shows up.

I actually like the fella and after he’s, ahem, finished, we chat about random things. Thankfully it doesn’t ruin my persona and I don’t feel bad for only wailing insults upon him.

Kinda weird ongoing encounter for the past several months.

shatteredLass

Craigslist Cats Are A No-No

My roommate got a young cat from craigslist. It seemed normal at first but a week after having it, the cat has eaten maybe 2 bites of food. We thought maybe she was still adjusting. She slept constantly. I know cats sleep 18ish hours a day but this was all day and night. By the end of the second week we knew something was seriously wrong, so she texted the seller who insisted that shes healthy and our problem.

We then woke up at 3am bc the cat is staggering around and moaning one night. We rush her to the emergency clinic and they said she needed a 2000 dollar blood transfusion. She flatlined before my roommate could decide what to do. Vet bill was over 600 bucks for that vet to give the cat oxygen for 15 mins and then tell us she died. Texted the old owner she died and we get “oh” as a response.

Learned our lesson, no more craigslist cats.

Kimgoesrawrrr

Old Furniture

I love vintage and antique furniture so when I moved into my first apartment and I didn’t have much money, I used craiglist/ gumtree a lot. I found this amazing vintage wooden trunk advertised and arranged to pick it up.

On the phone the seller sounded like a normal, elderly lady but I went with a friend to help carry it into my car. Turn up at her house and and things appear quite normal, she’s in a 60s and quite middle class and appears quite respectable. She shows me the trunk and we agree on a price and then offers to show me other furniture she has for sale in another room. I agree so me and my friend walk into the room and it’s crazy – it’s a treasure trove of bizarre junk. There are taxidermied animals everywhere, like stuffed kittens wearing outfits in these little globes, just general weird stuff.

The lady then explains that she’s selling it all for a older gentleman who doesn’t know how to use the Internet, explains that she has been widowed for 20 years and how he is her new ‘friend.’ Then she just starts going into extremely graphic detail on their personal life. At first my friend and I just politely nod during her rambling, but then she starts to describe some really graphic stuff and offers to show us her “toy” collection.

At this point I just kind of picked up the trunk and ran out of there. All I could think on the way home is that It must have been some sort of hidden camera prank.

Peach25

Church Date

I bought an iPhone from a young, handsome Asian guy on a motorcycle who brought it to my house and thanked me for not being a craigslist flake.

Shortly after he left I received an email inviting me to attend church with him. I did not respond.

[anonymous]

3D Printer

Sold a 3D printer for $800. Was worth $1300 brand new, so a significant savings.

Get a message the next day saying they want to look at it, but are an hour and a half away, so we schedule it for the evening.

Two guys show up, check it out, test it. They offer me $600. I laugh in their faces and say “I know what it’s worth. You guys drove all the way here, and try to haggle me down even further? $800 or enjoy your drive home empty handed.”

I got $800 for it.

zanzertem

Delivery

Not CL but related. I had just started a relationship with a friend and had stayed over. She got some mail delivered to her house but it did not belong to her. I guess it had a phone number on it, I said I should call to get it to the person called and it was a dude, and talking to him it was weird, it seemed like he really wanted to know where the package had been delivered (i.e. her address), I was concerned so we made plans to meet at a local bookstore and we went to meet him. I went acting as “her husband” when we got there the gentleman was polite but “really” wanted to know where it was delivered. we didn’t say obviously but I told her to watch herself for a while to make sure he didn’t magically appear near her home…

[Deleted]

Chinchillas

This one was weird good, not weird bad.

When I broke up with my ex-girlfriend, I inherited a pair of Chinchillas which were her pets that she summarily abandoned upon the end of our relationship.

I put a post on Craigslist advertising them for sale (for 250 for the pair with everything they came with including a GIANT cage and all their supplies). I did this not because I needed the money, but rather because I didn’t want one of those people who picks up every little free item they could find to swing out and get them.

A woman calls me and asks if she can swing out and look at them, her son is dying for a chinchilla. So they came out and the kid instantly fell in love with them. He picked them right up (they are still kind of skittish, but we were religious about holding them) and he proceeded to tell me all about Chinchillas (as if I had never seen them before…gotta love kids). So she hands me the money, and I walk over to the kid and say hey man, tell you what, you take this money, and spend it on toys for the Chinchillas, and then I hand him back his mom’s money.

I didn’t need the money, and seeing that the chinchillas go to a home where they would be played with as opposed to living in my spare room alone was more than I was looking for.

cryospam

“Free Hamsters”

Wanted a hamster. Found “free hamsters” on Craigslist. Called the phone number and asked, “do you still have any hamsters left?” The lady replied: “Oh yeah, I just found some.” ….did I hear that right? I must have misheard it. When I arrived at her house, there were several cages filled with hamsters.

She wasn’t an intentional animal hoarder. She started out with two or three hamsters. But one of the hamsters escaped, and it was pregnant. They started breeding in her walls like rodents, and every time she would find one, she would put it in a cage. When I arrived at her house, there were about 100 hamsters – in the walls, under the couch. Her house was infested with hamsters. She was genuinely overwhelmed and had no idea how to take care of the problem.

I gave her the phone number for a small animal rescue. They removed all the hamsters. I adopted two, Peanut and Teeny Bean. Teeny Bean had a massive facial tumor, one black eye, and one white eye (he was born without one and his eyeball socket filled with some kind of gel). The vet said these were cosmetic and he was otherwise fine. He was the ugliest hamster ever, and he loved to snuggle.

HurrayForCandy

N64

I went to buy an N64 with a ton of games and a few controllers for $100, he told me to meet him at a Walmart not far from my school, so I went after the school day. He told me that morning that he had a cherry red Mustang and to meet him at it at 3 o’clock. I pulled into the Walmart and there has to be three or four cop cars around a cherry red Mustang. The guy was sitting on the curb while they took out a bunch of stuff from his car. He had like two pounds of weed on him and some other stuff.

I was sad, I really wanted the N64.

Howley7

Sketchy Couch

Not terribly wrong, but my gilfriend and I arranged to buy a couch off of a couple in a fairly bad neighborhood. After a hassle of trying to find the place we get in the apartment, the couch is in REALLY good condition, and it was retail listed for $1200 we were paying $500. They were moving the next day and really needed to sell it. As I’m carrying one of the sections of the couch out with the guy I see a bug scuttle across the couch. The guy flicks it off with a quickness. And looks at me with the most apprehensive stare ever. Long story short the couch was absolutely infested with roaches, like I’m talking thousands INSIDE THE COUCH. They knew.

venomftr

Dresser

I have a female friend who responded to an ad about a dresser. The guy offered to knock the price down from $50 to $10 if she’d make love with him. She said no.

There’s some weird people out there.

woodshayes

Calculator

Not me, but a friend. He was selling a graphing calculator and arranged to meet the buyer at a shopping center. The buyer wanted to test it out, but it didn’t have batteries. My friend agreed to ride to a grocery store with him to pick up batteries. On the way back to where they originally met, the buyer took the calculator to test it out. He plays with it for a minute, agrees it is in good condition and passes it back to my friend. On the screen, the buyer had typed “you are kidnapped”. My friend finishes reading it, buyer locks doors and speeds up. Friend panics. Then the buyer stops, laughs, gives my friend money, let’s him out and tells him to be more careful. Almost a Raymond K. Hessle kind of thing I guess.

SUSANISNOTABADLADY