Free baby boy offered on Craigslist is suspected hoax

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 26 November 2006 10:17

Your IT - Home IT

A sick hoax on the Internet is callously offering to give away a baby boy that allegedly ‘sits in the closet and cries’ through popular online classified site Craigslist. Child abuse detectives are investigating.

They say you can find just about anything on the Internet, but surely this is taking things a little too far.

Online classifieds site Craigslist, very popular in the US for buying and selling products, and a competitor to eBay for online transactions (although not auctions), has received some publicity in an awful way – by having a baby boy offered free of charge to anyone with a good home that wants him in the site’s ‘free stuff’ section.

A picture of the baby boy along with a description and contact details were offered in the listing, with part of the listing describing the boy thus: "Free baby boy to good home. My ex-girlfriend had him a few weeks ago, but now he just sits in my closet and cries. I’m not too sure how to deal with it. Batteries not included. Transaction final. No returns.".

The ad also stated the baby was in San Diego and could be delivered, in possibly the only time in Internet ecommerce history that an offer of ‘free shipping’ was welcomed by no-one and is being actively investigated.

Local authorities are now actively investigating the case to discover who placed the ad, and to uncover whether it truly is the hoax it appears to be, or if indeed a sick person was genuinely trying to give away a baby boy. Craigslist founder Craig Newmark has stated that he believes the listing is probably a hoax.

Authorities promise to investigate the case vigorously until they have a definite answer.