Craigslist Adventure

It was a Dark and NOT so Stormy Night

I had quite the Craigslist Adventure last Friday night.

It began Thursday night when after searching for weeks, I found a piece

of furniture on Craigslist that I thought would make the perfect potting bench.

Cause you know I've been obsessed with having my own potting bench.

I envisioned myself using it for an outside buffet and garden bench.

So...I quickly emailed the seller who was offering a buffet and hutch for $75.

Would he take $50 and could I pick up tomorrow after work?

Then I went to bed.

Of course I was running late for work the next day and didn't check my email beforehand.

Then, I had to work an extra shift and then ended up going to dinner with a friend.

I totally forgot about my Craigslist find.

I got home about 10 and checked my email and I had several emails from the Craigslist guy, at first saying...

They could not take $50 and then saying they decided they could.

Would I call as soon as I received this email and arrange pick up?

So I called and said,

"Yes, I'd love it for $50. Could I come tomorrow?"

"Well", said Chester (the Craigslist guy) "I've got it in storage at Tuttle."

I say, "Oh...I know where Tuttle is...I could come in the morning."

(For those of you not in Oklahoma. Tuttle is a small town south of Oklahoma City. 

Drive time about 40 minutes away)

Chester says, "Well, actually we are here right now. It's at my parents house. We have 

somewhere we need to be tomorrow. I was hoping you could have come this evening."

I find myself saying, "Well, I could come now...if it's not too late."

(I didn't want someone else to snap it up)

"No", says Chester (hmmmm all of a sudden Chester seems like an ominous name for a seller.)

"Right now is just fine."

I have to say he sounds perfectly normal on the phone;

like a young professional. (But have you ever seen American Psycho?)

So....I tell Chester that I'll start out right away and should be there in about 40 minutes.

It's now like 10:15pm.

As I start driving down the highway...I think....hmmmm most women would take someone 

with them to buy a piece of furniture from a stranger off Craigslist.

Most women would not head out alone to drive to the country at 10:15 pm.

But...I am not most women. 

I did call a friend's Mom (Peggy)...the only person I could think of that would actually be awake

and told her that if I didn't call her within an hour to send the police to this address in Tuttle.

And that the guy's name was Chester.

Peggy...thought this was the worst idea I ever had and begged me to turn back.

But I was half way there by then.

I was just going to take my chances. 

I'd been told to drive to Tuttle and turn at a big church...

I took Chester's phone number in case I got lost.

But I thought, it shouldn't be too hard to find.

I was to drive through Newcastle to Tuttle and turn left at 

Snowhill Church...after that....I was to turn when I saw an old abandoned trailer...

to drive down the drive past the trailer and around back to a house

where the furniture I wanted was behind that in a barn.

Yes, I decided to continue on.

I found the church but could not find where to turn so I called Chester.

He said he'd meet me at the corner gas station.

Sure enough...a few minutes go by and here is Chester in a pickup to the side of me

waving for me to follow.

He looked like a nice fellow but then so did Ted Bundy.

I followed him into a driveway surrounded by tall grasses.

I am really questioning my sanity at this point.

Yes, there was the old house trailer as he'd described.

A chill went up my neck.

But I still had visions of this in my head.

or this

I was in it now. I was not going to let being in a precarious situation cause

me to miss out on the potting bench of my dreams.

I continued on...following him till I saw the home of his parents.

Chester had gotten out of his truck and was waving for me to come on.

Yes, it looked like that.... but with tall grass all around and junk cars too.

Another figure came out of the house carrying a flashlight.

I could hear large dogs barking in the background.

Chester motioned for me to drive past his truck and around to the back of the house.

By then, I stopped my SUV and asked if I was going the right way.

Chester said..."Yes, it's just back here in the barn...follow me."

The other figure was a woman. 

Chester said..."This is my wife ______." 

I totally forgot the name as soon as I heard it.

He said..."I thought you might be more comfortable if I had my wife out here too."

"I thought you might find this kind of scary."

"I had her put the two great danes in the house."

(strangely, I would have found the great danes the least frightening of the whole ordeal)

At this point I was laughing hysterically as I am known to do when frightened.

"Scary?" I said..."What could be scary about this?"

So we got to the barn and there is my prize.

They show it to me by flashlight.

I say..."Yep, I'll take it." 

Truth...I just wanted to get out of there.

At that point, they called the brother out of the house to help load it and I was off on my way.

He was a big guy in overalls. This only added to my discomfort.

I have never been happier driving away from something.

As I drove back through the long drive way...Chester called my phone.

"You forgot the doors for the hutch." 

"I'll be right up to you with them."

I didn't care about the doors. I wasn't planning on putting them back on.

I hated sitting there waiting for him to walk up with them. 

I was almost free and I feared just like in the horror movies...

that is when the killer would do me in...just when I had thought I'd gotten away.

But he handed me the doors and I was off on my way again.

I was back home by midnight with my treasure.

Now the only problem is that its still in the back of my SUV.

It's too heavy for me to move it by myself. 

I broke my cardinal rule of not buying any furniture that I can't move by myself.

Still I know it has great potential if I can only get it out of my car.

Don't you think it was worth risking my life?

This was my first Craigslist purchase. I would totally do it again.

But next time....I'm really going to insist on it being during daylight hours.

To be quite honest, the couple I bought this from could not have been nicer.

And they looked attractive and very normal.

She was hesitant to sell it because it had been her grandmother's but they didn't have room for it

any more.

I always meet the nicest people when out and about and they were no exception.

Still it was rather spooky.