The Absolute Strangest Craigslist Ad I've Ever Read

Craigslist is a website where people can place and respond to free online classified ads. There are numerous categories for ads on Craigslist, including apartments/housing, personals, employment, gigs, babysitters, items for sale and more. There is a local Craigslist in just about every area as well. This makes it easier for people to find what they're looking for within their own local area instead of traveling outside their area or dealing long distance, which Craigslist warns can be dangerous.

I have dealt with Craigslist for at least the past 4 years, and I have sold many things as well as bought many things. My husband and I have both found employment through Craigslist ads, found places to live, and if it weren't for Craiglist, we wouldn't have been able to move out of town so my husband could accept a job. Since the job didn't pay for relocation, we had to of course come up with the money on our own. We sold a great deal of items on Craigslist, which allowed us to raise the money that we needed to move.

Despite my frequent dealings with Craigslist and my high opinion of it, I must say that I have seen some pretty weird requests advertised. Since Craigslist is free, people can post just about any type of ad that the choose, as long as it doesn't break the basic rules. Viewers of the ads that don't meet certain guidelines can have these ads flagged so that Craigslist can remove them if they're offensive or inappropriate in some other way.

I have seen some pretty weird ads on Craigslist over the years, with a few standing out in my mind more than others. Since I'm a writer, I frequently look for gigs all over the United States, so even though I don't live in New York, I often look at their writing jobs. While checking out the New York Craigslist one day, I clicked on the "activities" category out of curiosity. Most of the ads under this category were what you would expect, but one really caught my eye. It was an ad by some woman who titled it "Damsel in Distress" and she supposedly had a broken umbrella on her balcony. She wanted someone to come and look at the umbrella before management found out it was broken and made her pay for it. What was really strange about this particular ad was that she offered to take whoever came to repair it to some play and she also stated that "vittles" would be provided. At the end of the ad, the person stated that any interested party should respond with their name and number and not say "nasty" things or she would report them. I'm not exactly sure what the poster meant by "vittles," and I can only imagine, but I couldn't help imagining a cat on a TV commercial eating a meal whenever I think about the word "vittles," as in Tender Vittles. What a weird person. Why didn't she just post an ad under gigs or labor but state that she needed the job done for no pay? The poster makes herself appear to be not a very nice lady, and I feel that if she was looking for a man or looking to trade her body for services that she should have posted her ad in a more appropriate category.