Portland, OR – Vince Hopper hangs on to life at a local hospital after fighting off organ harvesters who came to his apartment searching for "free organs" advertised on Craig's List.
Police arrested several harvesters, but organ seekers made off with a kidney, half a liver, two fingers and a pancreas before the crowd was dispelled.
"I woke up and there were these people lined up with scalpels, steak knives, hacksaws, basically anything that could cut. I didn't know what the hell was going on at first. Then some guy mentioned a Craig's List ad, and I was screaming that it wasn't me who placed the ad. Some guy pulled out my organ donor card and showed it to every one. That was all the confirmation they needed," said Hopper.
Hopper said he was just happy he only lost "internal organs. If you know what I mean."
Many of the people who didn't get organs were considering suing Hopper and Craig's List. Greg Belton, who came looking for a spleen, said, “I spent $50 on ice. Somebody's going to pay for that. It's false advertising or something.”
Another man hoping to add an appendix to his collection said this was the second time he'd been burned by Craig's List. "I'm going to go back to using eBay for appendixes. They're much more reliable for that kinda thing."
Authorities are trying to track down who placed the ad, but said this isn't the first time something like this has happened. Police detective Rod Stumpley said, “Last week we had people come and take kids from homes after a 'free kids' ad was placed, we had a Wal-Mart cleared out after an 'everything's free' ad was placed. It's on the Internet so you can hardly blame people for believing it.”
A representative from Craig's List said that people shouldn't believe every “free organ” posting on the site, and that harvesters should consult with the donor before removing his pancreas just to be on the safe side.
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