Custodial dad advertised sale of 4-year-old son on Craigslist (Spokane, Washington)

Dad RICK OBELOPHY (apparently a fake name) is accused of offering his 4-year-old son for sale on Craigslist. Note that this dad is apparently custodial as he says that the boy's mother is "out of the picture" and that his OWN PARENTS no longer speak to him since he assumed custody. Also note that this guy freely admits to abusing this child by putting him in a closet to punish him for fussing "too much" or "screaming." And why would this child be fussing and screaming, @$$hole? And just how bad are you that your own parents are disgusted with you, even before you pulled this Craiglist scam (and I don't really care if this was your idea of a joke or not).

But as usual, see all the "helping profession" people falling all over themselves offering Daddy Dearest help with "resources." Freaking enablers is what they are.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/289320

Police seeking man who tried to sell 4-year-old son on Craigslist
By Chris Dade.

Police in the northwestern U.S. are seeking a man who advertised his 4-year-old son for sale, at a price of $5,000, on the community notice website Craigslist.

The ad, placed by a man from Spokane in Washington state who appears to have given himself the false name of Rick Obelophy - the Spokesman-Review confirms that no-one by that name is known in the Spokane area - offered a 4-year-old boy called Gavin for sale and had a picture of a young boy attached.

Spotted by a woman, also from the Spokane area, on February 28 the ad had been taken down by Craigslist by the time she returned to the site, having saved the text on to her computer.
However she had not saved the picture, which showed a young boy in a yellow fireman’s helmet and a shirt bearing the word “adventure” on the front.

KXLY reports that the woman then forwarded her copy of the ad to Spokane County Sheriff's Office.

Detectives are not treating the ad as a hoax and obtained a warrant to seize all information relevant to it from Craigslist headquarters in San Francisco.

The ad had been posted to Craigslist the day before it was spotted by the unnamed woman and contained an anonymous email address for responses from anyone interested in buying a child whose father said he could no longer afford to keep him.

While reports do not reproduce the ad in its entirety it is said to have read in part:

Gavin is a great kid but I can no longer afford to take care of him.

It is going to kill me to do this but as I stated before I cannot afford to keep him. His Motherr is out of the picture and my parents no longer talk to me since I've had Gavin. So I don't know what else to do other than find a good family with kids or a couple that wants a son

Describing how Gavin "loves playing with balls but doesn't really like to play with cars and refuses to eat vegetables" and "always has a smile on his face" the man claiming to be his father adds that:

he doesn't fuss very much but when he does he just screams for hours. I usually just put him in the closet until he stops and that usually works

Despite his admission that he puts his son in the closet to stop him screaming Rick maintains that he is not prepared to give/sell his son to just "anyone", stating:

I want to meet with you and make sure you will be fit parents

According to The Spokesman-Review up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines await any person convicted of selling or buying minor children in the state of Washington.

Meanwhile KXLY spoke with Amy Swanson, Executive Director at the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery in Spokane, regarding what Rick Obelophy might have done if he genuinely was unable to provide and care for his son and had Gavin's best interests at heart.

She said:

If this dad would have called us we could have afforded him some time to think through this, if this was something he was really interested in doing helping him find the resources to get there if he needed to or buy him the time to pull together the resources he needs.

When parents are overwhelmed that don't always make choices that are in the best interest of their children or they think it's in the best interest of their children and it turns out not to be and if we can avoid that we want to be here for that reason

A valuable resource on a daily basis for millions of people worldwide Craigslist was in the news for the wrong reasons on another occasion during the last week.

The New York Daily News ran a story about a Minnesota man, 32-year-old Clinton Danner, arrested by the authorities in Chicago for pimping his wife through the community website. Danner allegedly threatened to harm their 3-year-old daughter if his wife did not agree to his demands that she work as a prostitute.