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Airbnb victim describes crime and aftermath

sfgate.com

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Re: Airbnb victim describes crime and aftermath

#21

Post by burgerbrain »

gojomo wrote: post #13
burgerbrain wrote: post #11

"sliced tags off pillows" Does this mean something other than what I think it means? That's just... weird for someone to do, but even weirder for someone to notice and care.

Meth addicts do bizarre things for reasons that only make sense in their manic/paranoid hallucinations. Compulsive and repetitive cleaning, redecorating, arranging, painting, burning, cutting, whatever. The mere fact that such tags usually say "don't remove under penalty of law" may have convinced them it was a listening device. Really.

Yeah, I get that, but we are all aware that that warning is meant for the retailers of the pillows not the owners, right? I'm really just confused that it would be even worth mentioning in the same sentence in the other things.

Re: Airbnb victim describes crime and aftermath

#23

Post by klenwell »

Vivtek wrote: post #6

Huh. Methamphetamine. Color me less sanguine about my take on that particular theory, then. (I thought meth was improbable.)

I was skeptical of that theory, too. For a few reasons:

1. If it was motivated by some kind of short-term meth-lab operation, why trash the place? The minimal amount of planning it would have seemed to require to rent the place seems inconsistent with the orgy of destruction that ensued.

2. Having never used Airbnb, I'm assuming that Airbnb's booking procedures are strict enough to discourage the casual teenage tweaker. Is this not true? Why would a 19 year-old drug addict go to all the trouble to rent out a place on Airbnb when I'm sure there's plenty of suitable venues in the Bay Area with lower barriers to entry? Or does Airbnb really make the barrier that low?

3. If it was a meth lab operation, I'd expect this wasn't an isolated case. Any other cases of this happening with Airbnb?

What I'd really like to know is what would the economics be behind a meth lab operation on this scale? Does it make economic sense? Was this planned as a short-term meth production enterprise that went out of control? Or was it something else?

Still doesn't add up for me.

Re: Airbnb victim describes crime and aftermath

#24

Post by rkudeshi »

burgerbrain wrote: post #21
gojomo wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meth addicts do bizarre things for reasons that only make sense in their manic/paranoid hallucinations. Compulsive and repetitive cleaning, redecorating, arranging, painting, burning, cutting, whatever. The mere fact that such tags usually say "don't remove under penalty of law" may have convinced them it was a listening device. Really.

Yeah, I get that, but we are all aware that that warning is meant for the retailers of the pillows not the owners, right? I'm really just confused that it would be even worth mentioning in the same sentence in the other things.

I did not know that. Makes a whole lot more sense now.

Re: Airbnb victim describes crime and aftermath

#25

Post by burgerbrain »

rkudeshi wrote: post #24
burgerbrain wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I get that, but we are all aware that that warning is meant for the retailers of the pillows not the owners, right? I'm really just confused that it would be even worth mentioning in the same sentence in the other things.

I did not know that. Makes a whole lot more sense now.

Yep, the tags are meant to inform the purchaser of safety stuff and whatnot.

http://money.howstuffworks.com/removed-mattress-tag.htm

Re: Airbnb victim describes crime and aftermath

#26

Post by sorbus »

Terretta wrote: post #14
danso wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, new to me as well...as now we have an actual name for a suspect. And according to the SFChronicle, the SFPD is characterizing it as being connected to EJ's case, which is more or less what Brian Chesky said: >The SFPD said Friday that on June 28 officers arrested Faith Clifton, a 19-year-old in San Francisco, in connection the case. She was booked into San Francisco County Jail on possession of stolen property,…

> "produced some items taken in the alleged theft" I really dislike the word "alleged" in this sentence. A person is innocent until proven guilty, so you could say "the alleged thief". But to say "the alleged theft" casts doubt on the victim's complaint, and on a crime having happened at all. Saying "alleged theft" conveys the possibility that the theft itself didn't happen. We don't have a "presumption of no crime",…

My understanding is that if journalists don't say that things are alleged then they open themselves up to lawsuits - or at least that's the rationale I've seen presented for things like this in the past. It fits the meaning of the word, too: "asserted to be true or to exist".

Re: Airbnb victim describes crime and aftermath

#27

Post by gojomo »

burgerbrain wrote: post #21
gojomo wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meth addicts do bizarre things for reasons that only make sense in their manic/paranoid hallucinations. Compulsive and repetitive cleaning, redecorating, arranging, painting, burning, cutting, whatever. The mere fact that such tags usually say "don't remove under penalty of law" may have convinced them it was a listening device. Really.

Yeah, I get that, but we are all aware that that warning is meant for the retailers of the pillows not the owners, right? I'm really just confused that it would be even worth mentioning in the same sentence in the other things.

That detail helps indicate the bizarreness of the situation, which goes beyond strictly gain-oriented criminality. She/they hung out doing crazy things, too. (The detail in the original blog post about burning duraflames in summer with closed chimney also served the same aim.)

Re: Airbnb victim describes crime and aftermath

#28

Post by rdl »

Vivtek wrote: post #6

Huh. Methamphetamine. Color me less sanguine about my take on that particular theory, then. (I thought meth was improbable.)

Meth lab is IMO implausible (the neighbors would have complained to the police earlier; the place would have probably burned down too).

Meth users having some kind of tweakfest is highly likely; you're fortunate to not live in the kind of place where this is common. In the trendy parts of SF, there are enough tweakers that this is an obvious possibility.

Re: Airbnb victim describes crime and aftermath

#29

Post by Vivtek »

rdl wrote: post #28
Vivtek wrote: post #6

Huh. Methamphetamine. Color me less sanguine about my take on that particular theory, then. (I thought meth was improbable.)

Meth lab is IMO implausible (the neighbors would have complained to the police earlier; the place would have probably burned down too). Meth users having some kind of tweakfest is highly likely; you're fortunate to not live in the kind of place where this is common. In the trendy parts of SF, there are enough tweakers that this is an obvious possibility.

A-haha, no, I live in the place where people are too poor even to do meth. (This is hyperbole: I know specifically that there are people here doing pot (which grows fine here), cocaine (which doesn't), and pills of diverse nature. Also, last year, witnessed some adroit customer service across the street involving oxycontin, an overdose of some sort, and assurances that the oxycontin was legit. Ah, capitalism in action.)

We probably make your meth, which you tweak as you fly over us.

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