Craigslist Free Kid Ad A Hoax

The South Windsor man accused of posting on Craigslist that he was giving away a kid might have thought it was a funny joke, but police were not laughing.

Police got the alarming call on May 8.

An Avon resident had come across an ad on Craigslist offering to give away a child. It was complete with a photo of the child who appeared to be about 5 years old.

Avon police jumped into action and contacted the Craigslist.com legal department and learned that the ad came from a computer with an Internet address in South Windsor.

So, now South Windsor Police investigators who have some experience with computer crime investigation were pulled in. They did their thing and tracked the ad to a home computer on Stanley Drive in South Windsor, South Windsor police said. 

There, police spoke with Ryan Bissett, 20, who admitted placing the ad, which was a hoax, police said. Avon police arrested him about two hours after learning about the posting.

Bisset does not have a child and felt the ad placement would be funny, police said. He got the photo, police said, by doing an image search on Google.
  
The cops aren’t laughing about the hoax, which they said created annoyance and alarm to the Avon citizen who came across the ad.

It also resulted in hours of police investigation for the two agencies to determine that a child was not at risk of injury or harm. 

Officers issued Bissett a summons to court for breach of peace. He was released at the scene on a promise to appear and is due in Manchester Superior Court on May 21.

Contact Us