Sex ad spurs court order

A single mother who says men from Yuba, Sutter and Sacramento counties contacted her after her picture and phone number were on an Internet ad for prostitution won a temporary restraining order against two Olivehurst residents she says placed the phony ad.

The woman, who describes herself as an honor roll student at Yuba College, said she had to get a new cell phone number because of more than 30 phone calls and text messages from men after the ad appeared in September.

"It was all day for two days straight," she said Thursday of the contacts.

The Craigslist posting was able to include her cell phone number in listings that omit such information by spelling out the numbers, the woman said.

"Let's get dirty in the five30," the listing read in part, a reference to the area code here. "I'm up for anything you have in mind."

The temporary restraining order issued Wednesday requires the Olivehurst residents to stay at least 100 yards away from the woman. The two are friends of a former roommate and "played a horrible prank" by posting the ad, the woman said. The two are jealous of the attention she gets from men, she said.

The Appeal-Democrat is not naming the woman because of the nature of the false ad.

A Nov. 16 court hearing is scheduled in Yuba County Superior Court on her request for a three-year stay-away order that would include no additional such Internet postings.

"I could have done an ad on them," she said. "But the point is to stop them and anyone else." "I'm not about revenge," the woman added.

She said the ad uses her picture copied from her MySpace page.

Documents filed by the woman include what she identified as a Sept. 25 e-mail from Craigslist to her stating that the Web site posting appears to be a try to impersonate her for harassment.

The message continues that Craigslist doesn't have the name of the poster but that law enforcement could likely use information in the e-mail to identify the person posting the listing.

The woman said law enforcement didn't identify the Olivehurst residents but that she connects them with the Internet posting because of earlier text messages they sent her.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com.