First Person Account: My First Experience With Online Ad Posting Services

A year ago, thanks to a generous contribution from our doting parents, we were able to completely refurnish our new apartment. As we sat assembling the DIY furniture, it struck us that we didn’t have enough room for all the stuff we now owned. And thus began our process of identifying objects we no longer needed or could do without. To our great surprise, we had somehow managed to accumulate a lot of junk in a short time and, amazingly enough, we were able to fit in all of those in our (previous) tiny studio apartment.

Anyway, armed with a mission, each of us compiled a list of things we needed to dispose off. After many “discussions” (that’s how the husband likes to refer to our arguments!) we finally managed to come to a consensus. Apart from the clothing and other smaller knickknacks that we had decided to donate to a local charitable organization, we were left with a queen-sized mattress, a metal adjustable bed frame, an old functional microwave oven and a blender. For convenience, we used a well-known Internet ad posting service to put up an ad for the said items.

Within minutes of putting up the ad, which mentioned that these items could be had for free, my cell phone kept ringing unabated. I was totally taken aback by the swiftness of the responses, as well as by the sheer volume of calls received within moments of posting the ad. And the types of inquiries were interesting too – someone wanted to ensure the mattress wasn’t infested with bedbugs. Another wanted to know if it was OK to sleep on it before they decided to haul it away. Yet another person wanted to know if he could take only the bed frame.

After fielding a lot of inquiries, and telling everyone that the items were available on a first-come, first-choice basis, it was time to meet them in person.

The online ad was put up on a Sunday night, and the very next morning around 9, a youngish couple showed up at our doorstep for the microwave oven. I was eager to show them that the microwave oven was still functional. So I offered to boil a cup of tea, but I was amused when the couple said that wasn’t necessary. What she said next was quite cute,” You had us at free!”

Calls for the mattress and the bed frame continued. A middle-aged Asian couple was the first to come for these items, but soon they realized they didn’t have enough room in their truck for all of the items. They went away with a promise to come back later, but as there was no sign of them until the end of the day, I let the next caller come and collect the items.

The next person was a student from Jamaica. He arrived at my driveway in a battered green old Honda Civic. His easy smile and a shy demeanor had somehow managed to pull at my kind giving heart. I not only invited him inside my home, but also helped him carry the items to his car. In addition, I also gave him the blender. He sure looked like someone who could do with a little help from all of us. Big mistake!

Later that evening, two laptop computers went missing from our apartment – one from our bedroom and another from our eat-in kitchen. Someone had managed to crank open the partially opened windows and grabbed the computers – the individual power cords were left behind still plugged into the electric sockets! It was shocking – I thought we lived in a safe neighborhood with a low crime rate.

The local police department had been informed, and an officer was sent to our apartment. All evidence pointed toward the young Jamaican student. Well, so much for charity.

I learned a very important lesson that evening – never trust anyone, and more importantly, never let any stranger into your home no matter what.


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