Foreclosed family watches helplessly as craigslist crowds strip house bare

Editorial Note: Story updated on Thursday, October 25, 2012, with additional information and quotes throughout.]

WOODSTOCK, Ga. -- A family in Woodstock, who just lost their home of 20 years to foreclosure and are preparing to move out, lost even more on Wednesday.

PHOTOS | Craigslist crowds ransack foreclosed family's home

And it was all because they inadvertently triggered what they now call "mayhem" when they posted a craigslist ad Tuesday night.

Their online post was just a well-meaning ad for a giveaway of furniture and other household items in their driveway outside the small house, a giveaway scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

But big crowds showed up early, while the family was out, breaking into the house and taking practically everything inside, in part because the way that the craigslist ad was written gave them the idea that everything on the property was up for grabs.

Wednesday night, Michael Vercher walked 11Alive's Jon Shirek through his family's almost empty soon-to-be former home.

"Well, when we got to the house, I mean, pretty much -- this," he said as he stepped from the foyer into the living room.

Their home -- ransacked, ravaged, raked over.

Almost everything inside -- gone.

"They came in and just tore the place up," he said.


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[link to www.11alive.com]