If you need to buy furniture on a budget, Craigslist can be great. Using it to find "company" might not be such a good idea. That doesn't mean people don't do it! These people did and some of their stories are pretty wild! For most of them, this was hopefully their last time meeting up with strangers.
Here are the best Reddit stories from people who met others on Craigslist. Content has been edited for clarity.
How Bout Those Odds
“I went out to get drinks with a girl I met on Craigslist. After about three hours of getting completely trashed together, we walked back to my place. Upon walking up the steps, she started to get nervous. Once we got to my apartment, she was sweating bullets. We got inside my apartment and when I closed the door, she did this cartoonish ‘wipe of brow and exhale.’ We did the deed and she left shortly after. I didn’t see her again until I saw her coming out of the apartment across from mine with my neighbor, who she quickly introduced to me as her boyfriend.”
He’s Only My Ex!
“I was in Tucson, Arizona trying to sort my life out. I wanted to make new friends, so I posted in the strictly platonic section explaining who I was and that I was looking for a pal or two. After a few days, I got some responses and everything seemed cool. The fourth response was an attractive female, but since it was the platonic section, I wasn’t expecting anything to come of it. Anyway, we met up at the duck pond and we’re chatting it up. Things were going smooth, almost too smooth. I wasn’t even laying the groundwork, just being a friendly dude, and she was moving in on me, moving in fast. I said why not, and rolled with it, and we ended up at her place.
As soon as I walk in, I saw terrariums. Seriously, all over her house were tanks of snakes and I’m not talking about a snake enthusiast with around 4-5 pets. I’m talking full-on snake breeder for the sake of keeping them as her minions and taking over the world. This chick could tie all of them together and go cave diving! That was bad enough but my lower brain wasn’t saying no, although my upper brain was screaming, ‘Get out!’
Anyway, we did the deed and it was hardly enjoyable considering I was watching all around me for her to command the boas to hold me down so she could rip my head off and feed me to her friends. As I laid there and said it’s getting late and I should roll out, I heard someone coming into the apartment, so I asked her if she has a roommate.
‘No, well yes…sorta,’ she said.
In a moment, I’ve got my shoes in my hands and my shirt slung over my shoulder, bolting for the window when she said, ‘No no, it’s not what you think.’ I relaxed a little bit, hoping to hear her say it was her brother or some other relative, as long as they wouldn’t hurt me for banging the snake queen.
‘It’s my ex-boyfriend, we split up a week ago, and we decided to stay living together’
I was figuratively panicking. I headed again for the window when this burly lumberjack beast of a bear man built like a brick house walked right into the room and continued to the bathroom to get something. All the while, I was standing there in my boxers with my pants around my ankles and my shirt over my shoulder.
He emerges from the bathroom about five seconds later with one hand behind his back. I was sure its all over, but I was frozen solid with fear and couldn’t move an inch. He spoke, ‘Hey dude.’
I responded, ‘H-h-hey’
He advanced toward me and the chick was freaking out about her snakes like, ‘Don’t hurt my babies, Chad! You be careful in here!’ He pulled, from behind his back, the metal curtain rod he’d ripped from the wall in the bathroom. I boogied. I dashed for the window as quick as you can with your pants around your ankles and tried to crawl out. He swung that rod and whipped it over my butt just as I fell out into the yard.
I threw my shoes on and pulled my pants up with a speed comparable to that of Captain Falcon. I jumped fences until I didn’t recognize where I was or how long I’d been running. I called my sister from a payphone and got her to pick me up.
I’m never using Craigslist to meet people again.”
Soldier To Soldier
“I was unaware she was married, with two kids and her husband came home halfway into it. I asked who it was when she informed me it was her husband. I felt like garbage. So I quickly grabbed some textbooks off a shelf and started to walk out the door. When the husband asked who I was and what I was doing there, I explained I was getting ready to start my next semester of college and I was there to buy books from her, then I left.
A few days later, she texted me. I asked if she was home, she said no, so I went over there to see if her husband was home because ‘one of the books was the wrong one’ and he was. I gave him the books, along with a letter explaining how I had come to ‘purchase’ the books and in the letter I left my cell number. The man texted me five minutes later. I learned he was a soldier, as was I, and he thanked me from the bottom of his heart for telling him and having the respect a soldier should to tell him of this. Never got a text from the girl again, but me and the guy are now friends.”
Handcuffs Got Involved
“Several years ago, I was bored and lonely so I looked on the casual ads and found one for a decent looking girl, close to my age, and not looking for anything serious. I emailed her and she replied back quickly. She sent her number so I called and we chatted a bit. We set a time for me to come have some drinks at her place, which was about 20 minutes from me.
I got there at the set time and she’s pretty cute. We sat on her bed and had some drinks while we listened to music. After a few, we started messing around and she’s going down on me when I heard a loud pounding from the other room. I asked if she’s expecting anyone and she said no. The pounding continued so she went to answer the door. I heard talking, then crying, so I pulled up my pants and walked out there expecting to get yelled at or hit by a boyfriend or something.
Turns out it’s a sheriff’s deputy. The next thing I knew, the girl was in handcuffs. They were on a warrant sweep and she had an outstanding warrant for her arrest. The deputy told me where I could pick her up and I just nodded. I don’t know what she did but the cop said it would be ‘around $200’ to get her out. As she was being loaded into the back of his car, she looked at me and said, ‘See you soon.’
I said, ‘Ok’ and I drove home. She called the next day and I didn’t answer. Later I get an email about how I’m a jerk and she was mad I didn’t come get her and she had to call her boss to bail her out and to never call her again. I didn’t.”
Tour Guide Turned Into Something More
“A few years ago, I posted an ad on the Chicago Craigslist. The backstory as to why I did was that I had a free plane ticket and needed a destination. A family member recommended Chicago because they lived there for a while and truly loved it. So I booked the flight. On a whim, I posted an ad in the personals section looking for a tour guide and only one person responded.
She turned out to be really great. We hit it off over the phone. I lived in Atlanta at the time. We talked over the phone for a few months and got to know each other. I was visiting some family in Pittsburgh and this girl had just happened to have been passing through, so we met up and hit it off even further. When it came time for my visit to Chicago, we had a huge itinerary. I’m a huge tourist when it comes to travel and she took me to every museum and hidden nook and cranny of Chicago. We ended up being in a relationship for almost three years.
By then, I had moved back to Pittsburgh for work. I think ultimately she didn’t want to move to Pittsburgh and I didn’t want to move to Chicago. It was really stressful and we ended things. She’s married now and probably happy. We’re no longer on speaking terms. That was my most interesting Craigslist experience. I’ve dated a few other times from there and I’m still friends with those girls.”
Could’ve Called That One
“My friend sent me the post. It was two girls, looking for two guys to sleep with before they went on vacation with their families. We were really sketched out, but it seemed legit, so we went over. We sat around very awkwardly for a little bit and then things split up into one of the girl’s bedrooms and the couch. I wore protection the entire time, but I always have a hard time finishing if I have one on. So brilliant 19-year-old me takes it off and finished. We left.
I got the clap.”
Drawing The Line At Feet
“I was in Phoenix and I hooked up with a lady that was much older. She was about 50, I was about 35. She had a serious drinking problem. She gave me jacked up directions to her house because she was so out of it. I finally got there. She had a good body and kinda pretty face so we kicked it and drank. Finally, we got down to business and she was wild in the sack! She let me do anything I wanted. It got a little dark when she asked me to take my belt and spank her. I have to admit, though, I kind of liked it, but I still felt guilty.
The second time we hooked up, she was playing a lot of online video poker. She had overindulged as usual and random guys kept sending her pics through the game. I noticed that her feet were really dry, especially around the heel. That’s a huge turn-off for me so I volunteered to put some lotion on them for her. After I applied the lotion, she abruptly told me that I had to leave. I called her again, but she never answered. I never saw her again. Oh, I almost forgot, she would get blackout and the first time I was there, she slipped in the bathroom and fell down hard. I guess she was so loaded she just got right back up and acted as though nothing had happened. She was really good in the sack, though.”
A Disaster But Still “Worth It”
“I met a cool girl I was talking to on Craigslist. She was from Florida but for a few months, she was engaged to a guy in Missouri. He had moved up there about six months before to get a house set up and a job so he could move her there. What she didn’t know was that her fiancee was actually shacked up with another girl in Missouri and was just stringing her along until he got around to leaving her. Because I knew this, I felt it was alright to try and get some action from her cause he was getting some on the side, so she might as well too.
A week before I was to come to meet her, she called me up crying saying that she doesn’t have any money and they are about to cut off her power. She asks me if I can loan her $500 until I come down and then she can repay me. I say sure and I wire her the cash. This is a foreshadowing of things to come. My parents were going on a cruise the same week I was going to fly down. So, we decided to leave on the same day and I would come back on the same day they returned from their trip. We all go to the airport and I fly to Fort Lauderdale. I was going to get a rental car but she had said that I wouldn’t need one because she could come to get me and take me back when I needed to leave. For any of you ever thinking of meeting an internet person, take it from me when I say: ALWAYS HAVE YOUR OWN TRANSPORTATION! Again foreshadowing here.
So I got off the plane and got my luggage. I saw no one around that looked like her so I went to the front of the airport. An older man, around 55 with greasy hair and old ratty clothes, approached me and called out my name. I was like, ‘Who is this?’ He introduced himself as her step-father. Her car was torn up and he had to drive her to the airport but because she didn’t want to leave her kids with him, he had to come in and get me. He grabbed my luggage and started off with it. We went out into the parking lot and he led me to an early 1960s station wagon, you know the ones I’m talking about? It had wood panel siding and brown interiors and it smelled like someone just puked all over the floor. I was like wow, this is not how I pictured things going but hey I’m here so might as well make the most of it.
He set my stuff in the back of the car as I went around and hugged her. Yep, still as hot as the pictures she sent me for sure, hottest girl ever. She’s wearing a white and pink trimmed sundress that showed off everything. I grinned from ear to ear as she opened the door for me and closed the door for me. I was already getting a weird vibe from the two of them but dismissed it…they were just being friendly is all.
As we drive back to her house her step-father says that they need gas and so he stops in at a gas station. He asks me if I want anything to drink. I say no and turn around and start talking to her as he pumps gas. When the tank is full he opens the door and says, ‘Ok it’s 35 bucks.’ Then he stares at me. I stare back at him and then she leans up and whispers in my ear, ‘Can you pay for it? I can give it back to you when we get home.’ I look at her angrily and pull out my money and give him 40 bucks. They both stare at all the cash in my hand and I hastily stuff it back into my pocket. Another note for internet travelers is NEVER SHOW HOW MUCH MONEY YOU HAVE TO ANYONE. NOT EVEN THE PERSON YOU HAVE COME TO SEE. When he comes back out to the car he has a gallon of milk and some bread. I hold out my hand for my change but he just smiles and hands me the milk and bread. I don’t say a word I just take the stuff and sit there and with a deadpan stare out the window.
We ride for a good hour into the middle of nowhere. I haven’t seen a store in 20 minutes and no houses in the past 10. I’m getting a little nervous when we finally cut onto a dirt road. It’s a trailer park. I just sit and watch as the rundown, destitute homes go by. I have a sick gnawing feeling in my gut but I don’t say anything. It is then that I realize that no one actually knows where I am. The only thing my parents know is I went somewhere near Ft. Lauderdale. They are on a cruise and even if I wanted to call them I have no idea how to actually get a hold of them.
We pull up in front of this dingy white and tan trailer. The front porch consists of some old lumber that appears to have washed up on a beach and some old plywood that has rotten through in some places. The grass around the place is so high that I can’t even tell if it’s underpinned or not and there are pieces of broken stuff laying everywhere. The front door opens and this behemoth sized woman looks out and smiles and waves at us. I turn to the girl and say, ‘I thought we were going to your place?’
She smiles and says ‘We are here. I live with my parents now. After Tim (that’s the ex’s name) left, I couldn’t afford my own place anymore so I had to move back in with my mother and her husband.’ I don’t say another word as I get out of the car. I have officially stepped into the twilight zone.
Her mom maneuvers her great, bulky self across the porch, which groans and shakes, and makes her way down the steps. I am just stunned silent as she approaches me. ‘Hello there, young man. It’s so good of you to come and stay with us for a while. I am sure we will make you feel right at home for as long as you are here.’ She gives me this ugly smile.
I smile weakly and shake her clammy rotund hands and say, ‘Thanks for having me, ma’am.’ She turns around and leads me into the house. Nothing could have prepared me for this scene.
When you walk in the front door you come into the kitchen/living room. There is a hallway to the left and a door to a bedroom to the right. What was once brown shag carpet is a faded distant memory. What has taken its place is a stained torn mess of holes and what appears to be dried dung in piles everywhere. The furniture is broken down old stuff that is so dirty you can’t really tell the overall color of it. There are dozens of ashtrays everywhere piled full of ashes. The ceiling is also dirty from the years of smoke that had built up on it. The kitchen sink is overflowing with dishes that look like they haven’t been washed in months. There is a crockpot on the counter that has mold growing out of it and down the sides. There appears to be a pile of trash in a corner that has been there so long that it has actually rotted a hole through the floor and fell through and they have just piled the hole full. Cockroaches the size of small rats scurry around and over everything in the kitchen.
As I turn towards the bedroom I can see through the door and see an old cast iron bed that is wired to the wall. Clothes are piled ceiling high on the far wall and on the side closest to the door there is a nightstand with ashes and smoke butts beside it at least 2 feet high. The nightstand is covered with what appears to be old food bowls and glasses. I turn and look down the hallway. I can see 3 doors down the hallway and all three are closed. The walls are all dirty and cobwebs are everywhere. There is no flooring of any kind down the hallway, just bare gypsum board.
I stand there at least 5 minutes just turning my head back and forth before I feel a nudge at my back. I turn around and Jamie, that’s the girl’s name, is motioning me in. I take a deep breath and walk into the mess of a place. As I walk in the door the smell hits me like a punch to the stomach. Stale air, smoke, old food, mold, and who knows what else attack my nose. I almost retch as I walk in but manage to hold everything down and not make a sound. Jamie grabs my arm and leads me down the hall. We go all the way to the very last door and she opens it and leads me into her bedroom.
A waterbed takes up almost all the floor space and a huge dresser takes up what’s left. The closest is piled full of clothes and they are strewn all over. On one end of the dresser is a computer. The keyboard looks like someone dipped it in coke and then kicked it around outside for a couple of days. The screen is so sticky with stuff I can’t even see what is being displayed on the screen. The mouse appears to have a film at least a quarter-inch thick all over it. On the other end of the dresser is a nice, brand new looking stereo system that doesn’t even appear to have dust on it. It is so out of place with the surroundings I can’t stop staring at it. The bed itself appears to be clean as a whistle and is made up very neatly. As I stare, I begin to think maybe I died in a plane crash and this is my afterlife and I have been sent here to live for eternity.
See one thing about me is that I can’t stand filth. Sure my house gets a little dirty sometimes but I never let it go more than 3 days before I have to start cleaning. I couldn’t even guesstimate how many years it had been since this little storm had been even straightened up much less cleaned.
‘So what do you think? I know it’s not much but it’s all my mom can afford on her disability check. My stepdad fishes a lot but doesn’t make much money either.’
‘I’m speechless,’ I say, cringing, as I brush a pile of clothes.
‘Yeah I know it’s bad but it’ll be ok.’, she then proceeds to make me forget all about the house and anyone else in it. She starts getting louder and louder, to the point of apocalyptic heretic screaming, and I just know any minute her parents are gonna come busting in but they never come back there. Never in all the times I got with her in that room did they ever come back there.
When we are done, I ask to use the bathroom. She tells me it’s in the next room. I go to flush and nothing happens. I call her in there and she informs me I must now go outside to the well and draw a bucket of water from the well to flush with. That’s right, they have no running water either! So out I go and draw the water like I had to do when I was a kid and go back and flush the commode. As I walk through the house her step-dad just stares at me and grins while her mother gives me the evil eye. I was so uncomfortable and hurried through both times.
When it was time for supper I was informed that unless I wanted fish they had caught that morning and other stuff they could rustle up, I would have to buy them all dinner. So I bought us dinner from a KFC on down the road cause there was NO WAY I was gonna eat ANYTHING fixed in that place.
As I sat on her bed and waited for her stepdad to come back with food, I noticed something. I had taken my shoes off when we hooked up but had left my socks on. They were BLACK. That’s right walking from the bedroom to the living room and back again in my white socks had turned the bottoms of them black and sticky. I almost retched again as I yanked them off and put my shoes back on. I went in search of my suitcase and found it on the couch. When I went to pick it up a flea jumped on my arm! They also were infested with fleas!
I went back to the bedroom and just laid down and closed my eyes. How had I gotten myself into this, I wondered. All in the pursuit of a piece of tail. 3 days I stayed there and every day was the same. I stayed in her room laying on the bed and when she wanted to get it on, we did. When I started talking about getting ready to leave, she brought her friend over and we had some group fun so that I would stay longer. After two nights of that, I had decided I had had enough. I was dirty, I was tired. Not even two beautiful women could keep me there any longer. I told Jamie that on my 5th night there and she left the room.
A few minutes later, her step-dad came back into the room and said I wasn’t going anywhere. I had told them I was going to stay with them for a week and he was gonna see I stayed for that long and maybe even longer; that Jamie and I had made a commitment to each other and he wasn’t going to let me just walk away from that. Furthermore, I owed him $800 for the 5 nights I had stayed and I couldn’t leave until that was paid anyway.
I lay on the bed and just stared at the ceiling. Jamie came back in and lay down beside me. As I stared at the ceiling an idea came to me. I would wait until tonight and I would sneak out and get a ride from someone into town and then I would go to the airport and trade my ticket in for an earlier flight and go home. I decided to have one more go at Jamie before I left.
After we were through she left the room. I bought dinner again that night and said I was tired and went to bed. I laid there until I heard her start snoring. I then opened one of the windows and crept out. I ran out to the road and flagged down a car. They just happened to be going to Ft. Lauderdale and gave me a lift. I got to the airport and traded my ticket in for an earlier flight. The flight didn’t leave for another hour so I decided to go to the bathroom, change clothes, and get some food. But, when I reached into my suitcase to get out my secret stash of cash I found it all gone. I had put $800 in cash as a just in case fund and now it was all gone. I had $25 and that was it.
When my flight landed, I just sat in the airport for 26 hours. The pain in my gut was so bad that I was delirious sometimes. I finally called my girlfriend, whom I was separated from, and she came and took me home. I was emotionally and physically exhausted. The next day I went to the doctor because I felt like trash, turns out I was dehydrated. I had to stay in the hospital for days on IV to recoup from the event.
The hospital stay cost $1,000, and, including plane tickets, money they stole from me, and the $500 I loaned her, the trip cost me over $2.000. For a pretty girl, a couple of threesomes, and a week vacation in the hospital.
Totally worth it.”
Narrowly Evaded A Kidnapping
Shutterstock/ atiger Shutterstock/ atiger
“Back before widespread internet usage, I had AOL and dialed into local BBS (Bulletin Board System) and met local people that way. On the BBS, I met a girl playing a door game. We got to chatting and we agreed to meet. This was a scary thing, even though I didn’t know it at the time, as I was only 14 and this was in 1994. We arranged to meet at the local mall, in the arcade. I show up early and wait. She told me she was 17 and pillowy. This girl showed up and she was huge, like probably 300 pounds. I almost ducked out, but the girl did have a shining online personality, so I decided to go ahead and talk to her. We walked around the mall for a bit and she said she wanted to get some food. She literally got 9 things from Taco Bell and didn’t offer to get me anything. After watching her gorge herself, she pulled out her wallet.
She showed me her driver’s license and confessed that she was actually 26. After the driver’s license, she showed me business cards from bondage places and adult stores and said she liked to shop there. I was getting scared. She asked if I wanted to see her car. I was thinking alright, maybe she’s got a nice car and well, that will be a good way to get out of this situation, we’ll be in the parking lot and I can say I have to go. She’s parked WAY out and her car is a beat-up old Ford or something like that. It had different color doors and was a real piece of junk. I was like, ‘Is that really your car?’
She said, ‘Do you want to see the inside?’ I said ‘I can see it from here,’ and then she said, ‘Do you want to see the back seat?’ I ran as fast as I could from her and hid behind a dumpster until my dad picked me up an hour and a half later.”
“A Bluff Calling Match”
“Two years ago, I was bored so I decided to try to hook up with someone through Craigslist. I was browsing through my local listings. I find this cute girl so I email her and sure enough she emails back with her number. We text back and forth for a while and I find out she is in California while I am in the middle of the country. I ask why she is in California and she replies she is married and living on an army base.
At this point, I am ready to discontinue texting her until she says they are separated. So, I call her and we talk some more. Within the next couple hours, she says she wants to come out and see me. Not knowing what to say, my idiot mind agreed. So a few days later she flew into the Midwest with a surprising amount of luggage and ask if its ok if she lives with me. I said okay, again being stupid. She promised she’d pay rent. So, we go back to my house and we proceed to the bedroom to get on with the deed. I pull out my rubber, to which she insists that she’s allergic to latex. At my most stupid, I decided to go for it anyway because it had been awhile.
Five hours later, she says that she ‘feels pregnant.’
I said simply, ‘Oh. Let’s have it!’, bluffing because I knew she was lying. This begins a week and a half long bluff calling match, of me knowing that she was full of it and her trying to use me like a tissue. With no rent, no pregnancy test, and no more patience, I kick her back to the sunny state. About a week later, she texted me to say she wasn’t pregnant. I told her I knew she wasn’t.”
The Long Con
“I responded to a casual encounters ad where the girl said she was looking for just some casual fun, hanging out and stuff. Normal thing. So I head over there and it’s not in the best part of town, but not the worst. I go into her place and we sit on her bed and talk a bit to get rid of the nervousness. She says ‘I’ve never done anything like this before’ and since I hadn’t either we both kind of laughed and then started messing around. We got naked and then she asked me if I wanted to be on top which I obliged. She was a great time for the record. After I finish, we laid there for a minute and then I decided it was time to go. I got up and started to get dressed when she dropped this on me: ‘So… could I get maybe… like $40 for that?’
I was caught completely off guard because either I banged a desperate woman trying to weasel money out of me or I banged the dumbest working girl is the history of man. So in order to cover for myself and not feel awful, I said I would totally get it, I just had to run to the bank (hint: NEVER CARRY CASH EVER). I left and since she didn’t have my number, only my email, she kept emailing me asking where I was, to which I never replied and went home and went to bed.”
Finding Love Through Chairs
“I met my last girlfriend via ‘furniture – for sale.’ I had just moved to a new, larger house and wanted theater seating for my entertainment room. I browsed and saw some pics of chairs I liked. We exchanged a few emails and I drove 45 minutes to pick them up. They were being sold by a beautiful girl who originally got them for her ex. Up until I loaded them onto my truck everything was a standard business transaction.
Just as I was leaving I thought, ‘You may only pass this way but once,’ and in a sheepish way, I asked if there were any good places to eat around there and that I was in the mood for sushi. When she shared a nearby place’s location, I summoned all the courage I had and asked if she would join me that evening. It happened that she was hungry as well, so she accepted. The rest was history and we both enjoyed telling people that we met by a Craigslist online advertisement, just to see their faces before we shared the details.”