Craigslist

BRIGANTINE, N.J. - When Shore real estate agent Maria Schrenk started getting calls last week inquiring about a cheap summer rental on an upscale property that she had listed for sale or annual lease, she knew something was awry. When she took a quick look on Craigslist, she discovered the mischief: Scammers had poached information from the legitimate real estate website where Schrenk had listed the property and fashioned a phony advertisement with an irresistible price tag. The scammers were offering the cute Cape Cod in the 1500 block of Sheridan Boulevard, three blocks from the beach, for $1,400 a month.

Two taken in Craigslist iPad scheme * Island Avenue near Lindbergh Boulevard, Southwest Philadelphia Two men were robbed at gunpoint Sunday night after traveling from the suburbs to meet with men who posted ads on Craigslist claiming that they had iPads to sell for $300. A 45-year-old man met with two men at the Penrose Plaza Shopping Center about 10:20 p.m., thinking that he would return to Sharon Hill with an iPad, said Lt. John Walker, of the Southwest Detective Division.

Two teenagers have been charged with stealing 60 laptop computers from West Philadelphia High School that they then tried to sell on Craigslist, police said Monday. The 17-year-old boys allegedly broke into the high school Feb. 21 and stole the laptops, said Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives. One is a student at West Philadelphia and the other attends University City High School. Both are charged with burglary, theft, and receiving stolen property. Investigators last Wednesday asked for the public's help in the case, and a man came forward after watching a news report that night, Walker said.

Joseph C. Vignola Jr., son of a former Philadelphia city councilman and controller, pleaded guilty Monday to beating an 18-year-old woman he met on a website and slashing her throat in a City Avenue hotel room. He had been charged with aggravated assault, unlawful restraint, and possession of an instrument of crime in the May 28, 2008, attack, in which he had left the woman for dead. With his parents in the courtroom, Vignola, 21, repeatedly answered in a subdued voice, "Yes, Your Honor," when Common Pleas Court Judge Renee Cardwell Hughes asked him if he knowingly was entering guilty pleas.

Football players don't usually make it into the pages of Tattle. But, you're in luck, sports fans, because scandal, hookers and prescription drugs are totally our bag. Erstwhile NFLer and Penn alum Jim Finn: Get ready for your Tattle time. Actress Rosa Blasi, who plays the formerly philandering momma of a gymnastics phenom in ABC Family's guilty pleasure "Make It Or Break It," blasts her ex-hubs Finn in her new tell-all, "Jock Itch: The Misadventures of a Retired Jersey Chaser.

JOSH KIM'S movements are precise as he hovers over his burners, and it's not just because he champions economy of movement. The SPOT Burgers cart is minute, a receiverless phone booth fortified with mustard-yellow and ketchup-red aluminum armor. His bandanna'd head is obscured by order tickets - 60 to 80 an hour during the lunch rush - as he hand-forms patties and puts them on a griddle that facilitates many lunch breaks but never takes its own. A hungry throng dawdles around the bike racks at 33rd and Arch streets, shuffling forward, eyes wide as bottom buns as Kim dings the bell suspended from his window and breaks the always brief silence.

The police sting of an alleged prostitution ring using Craigslist in Philadelphia shows the online service is still profiting from crime and sexual exploitation. Undercover police responded to ads on Craigslist's "adult services" section and connected with alleged prostitutes at a hotel near Philadelphia International Airport. Six alleged prostitutes and three alleged pimps were arrested. The illicit trade on Craigslist and other websites is common. On any given day, Craigslist's adult-services section for Philadelphia is filled with dozens of suggestive ads from women obviously seeking johns.

A Montgomery County man pleaded not guilty yesterday in federal magistrate court to posting a message on Craigslist last June threatening to kill someone on Independence Mall. Robert Ortgiesen, 46, of Limerick, was arrested last November and released on $50,000 personal recognizance bond and ordered by a federal magistrate to attend mental health sessions. His trial is scheduled for Feb. 23. Ortgiesen posted a message on Craigslist on June 2, 2010 with the heading, "i am a killer," according to an arrest affidavit from a National Park Service ranger.

How romantic is your daily commute? Here are Philadelphia's 10 most romantic stations based on Craigslist's romance-scoring system. 1. Cecil B. Moore 2. 8th Street 3. Spring Garden 4. Berks 5. Lombard-South 6. Walnut-Locust 7. Snyder 8. 30th Street 9. Ellsworth-Federal 10. Tasker-Morris  

Many postings on Missed Connections have absolutely no chance of catching the right person's eye because of how they are written. Here are tips from Peter Freedman, Craigslist director of romance research, to better your odds of making that connection. When describing your subject, mention colors, clothes. Be specific. If you actually spoke, mention things you talked about. Have a vivid and eye-catching headline. Don't procrastinate. Get your message up there quickly and keep reading Missed Connections because the other person might be looking for you, too.  

COLWYN is 170 acres of political chaos. Jammed between Cobbs Creek and Darby Creek on the Southwest Philly border, the Delaware County borough's declining tax base and shifting demographics have fanned the flames of racism and led to a dysfunctional local government. Employees without health benefits, skyrocketing legal bills, a speakeasy in the firehouse, a cop with 15 active warrants in her name, secret expenditures and a police chief collecting a paycheck from home . . . for nearly two years now. The town of 2,500 people has bounced from one crisis to another in recent years, after Democrats, lead by Council President Tonette Pray, took over following decades of Republican control.

AKRON, OHIO - A teenager charged in a deadly scheme to lure victims with phony Craigslist job offers went on trial on murder charges Tuesday, waving to prospective jurors when he was introduced in court and taking notes and conferring with his attorneys during jury selection. Brogan Rafferty, 17, of Stow, is being tried as an adult. He and his co-defendant, Richard Beasley, 53, of Akron, have pleaded not guilty. Beasley will be tried separately. Three men were killed last year - two in Noble County in southeast Ohio and one found slain in Summit County near an Akron shopping mall - after responding to what authorities said were bogus online job postings.

JOSH KIM'S movements are precise as he hovers over his burners, and it's not just because he champions economy of movement. The SPOT Burgers cart is minute, a receiverless phone booth fortified with mustard-yellow and ketchup-red aluminum armor. His bandanna'd head is obscured by order tickets - 60 to 80 an hour during the lunch rush - as he hand-forms patties and puts them on a griddle that facilitates many lunch breaks but never takes its own. A hungry throng dawdles around the bike racks at 33rd and Arch streets, shuffling forward, eyes wide as bottom buns as Kim dings the bell suspended from his window and breaks the always brief silence.

What is the most unlikely career choice of a onetime high school and college basketball star whose NBA career was dashed by back injuries? How about cream-puff salesman? And not the used-car kind of cream puff - which might make sense - but the cream-filled pastry ball. Which is the new vocation of Brian Zoubek, the 7-foot-1 center for Haddonfield Memorial High and the 2010 national championship Duke Blue Devils. He's seeking profit in profiteroles. This week in his hometown, Zoubek, 24, opened Dream Puffz - "the Z is for me" - a spare, modern corner storefront next to Bread Board Plus.

Our three boys have outgrown a small ATV given to them a few years ago by their grandmother. When the middle son asked me if they could sell it on Craigslist with an eye toward a larger model, I said fine, thinking that letting him handle the transaction would be a learning experience. It was, for both of us. Wilson, age 14, sampled the market and concluded that five-year-old models like ours were selling for around $1,500. So he decided to list ours for $1,450. There was immediate interest, first from a neighbor looking for an ATV for his daughter.

The first time Ashley Berke and John McGinniss saw the house in Fishtown that they now own, they bolted. "It was horrible — depressing!" as Berke recalls the three-story house, whose original section dates to the 1840s. Months went by as the couple searched for a home in the Philadelphia neighborhood, one they loved for its diversity, history and old dwellings, until — a year after that first visit — there was a call from a Realtor suggesting that the property might be worth a second look.

FORMER PHILLIES outfielder Lenny Dykstra pleaded no contest to charges of lewd conduct and assault with a deadly weapon related to sexual misconduct with women who responded to ads he placed for housekeeping on Craigslist, the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office said Wednesday. Dykstra, 48, was sentenced to 9 months in the county jail and 3 years' probation. He also was ordered to stay away from five victims and told not to "solicit" on Craigslist or other social networking sites.

The amount of trouble former Phillies star Lenny Dystkra can get himself into appears limitless. Already facing jail time for grand theft auto plus a federal trial on bankruptcy charges, "Nails" on Wednesday was sentenced to 36 months in the Los Angeles County jail and three years' probation. Dykstra, 49, pleaded no contest to charges of lewd conduct and assault with a deadly weapon with women who responded to ads he placed for housekeepers on Craigslist, the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office said.

BRIGANTINE, N.J. - When Shore real estate agent Maria Schrenk started getting calls last week inquiring about a cheap summer rental on an upscale property that she had listed for sale or annual lease, she knew something was awry. When she took a quick look on Craigslist, she discovered the mischief: Scammers had poached information from the legitimate real estate website where Schrenk had listed the property and fashioned a phony advertisement with an irresistible price tag. The scammers were offering the cute Cape Cod in the 1500 block of Sheridan Boulevard, three blocks from the beach, for $1,400 a month.