If Only the Hatfields and McCoys Would've Had Craigslist

Police: Man in feud placed fake orgy ad
By STEPHANIE REITZ/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut man who was feuding with his neighbor targeted her in an explicit online posting that invited strangers to a rowdy orgy with a bored soccer mom, police said.

Philip James Conran, 42, made his first court appearance Thursday, but did not enter a plea to charges including reckless endangerment, harassment, criminal trespass and risk of injury to a minor.

The charges stem from an April 5 posting on Craigslist that said a West Hartford woman wanted to “please as many as I can before I go to work!” Detectives, Conran’s attorney and the woman targeted in the posting are not saying what prompted the feud between the longtime neighbors in the middle-class Hartford suburb.

West Hartford Police Chief James Strillacci said even veteran officers were surprised by the number of strangers who knocked on the woman’s door, called the house or drove by.

“We were saying to ourselves, ‘The economy must be worse than we think if all of these able-bodied men are able to immediately drop everything and drive over to this neighborhood“’ on a Monday morning, he said.

One man who showed up went to the wrong house, where he groped a teenage girl, police said. He has been charged with sexual assault and other counts. His attorney said his client has psychological issues and plans to plead not guilty.

Conran, an unemployed cook, has been free on $75,000 bond since his arrest. The married father was ordered Thursday to have no contact with his neighbor. He declined to comment after his court appearance.

While I'm not condoning Philip Conran's (above photo) actions here (they did indirectly lead to a teenage girl getting groped) I will say I'm not near as up in arms as the case where a mother posted a similar ad on Craigslist for a 14-year-old girl who was a rival of her daughter's. She deserves the chair. Conran probably should only get a few months in jail and I only say that because of the inadvertent grope to the girl at the wrong house. If not for that I would chalk this thing up as a good goof and send everyone home. You have to give it to Conran. It's a pretty good idea for a goof. Just imagine if the dudes from Grumpier Old Men could have done this kinda stuff to each other. Noone likes a fake orgy. Just ask this guy.