A woman in Colorado had her house ransacked after garage-sale deal-seekers took items from her home believing, allegedly, that it was some sort of gratis estate sale. Mary Andrews, the homeowner, said that when she came back to her house, which she had left unlocked, there were people streaming out carrying her property. “There were cards everywhere, and there were people coming out of my house with armloads of stuff,” she said. “I thought, ‘What is going on?’” Apparently, the misunderstanding began when someone started the rumor that Andrews’s home was the site of an estate sale. What made the lie believable was an actual estate sale taking place a few doors down and the remains of a previous garage sale Andrews still had in her yard. Andrews tried convincing the bargain hunters to return her belongings but to little avail. “They really did think this was an estate sale,” Andrews reported. “They all argued with me, and very few people would just put anything back.” Police have said the case is now closed because there are no suspects.
See Lucia I. Suarez Sang, Colorado House Ransacked After Estate Sale Mix-up, Fox News, March 28, 2018.
