Craigslist Sex Orgy Ad a Fake, Neighbor Targeted is Real, Say Cops of Un-Neighborly Feud

HARTFORD, Conn. (CBS/AP) The Craigslist ad was titled "Looking for Lust," and appeared to be written by a married soccer mom hoping to fulfill her fantasy of group sex, inviting strangers to "please come play." It listed her street address.

Police say in reality the ad was the sinister work of the woman's long-time neighbor, 42-year-old Philip Conran, who was feuding with her, and set her up for a parade of unwanted and desperate suitors. Conran has entered no plea to charges including reckless endangerment, harassment, criminal trespass and risk of injury to a minor.

The ad, posted April 5, said a woman in West Hartford wanted to "please as many as I can before I go to work!"

Police Chief James Strillacci said even veteran officers were surprised by the number of strangers, more than a half-dozen, who knocked on the woman's door, called her house or just drove by in middle-class suburban West Hartford, Conn. in response to the bogus ad.

"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.

Men started showing up at her door and in her neighborhood, prompting her brother-in-law to stand guard and write down visitors' license plates, police said. He also shooed away those bold enough to come to the door, including one who threatened to post her picture at soccer fields around town, authorities said.

In another perverse twist, 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.

Conran, an unemployed cook, has been free on $75,000 bond since his arrest. The married father was ordered to have no contact with his neighbor. He declined to comment after his court appearance Thursday, April 22. The woman declined to comment when contacted this week by The Associated Press.

Police linked the posting to Conran through Craigslist and his Internet provider, according to court records.

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