Music

This is what happens when friends put fake Coachella tickets and your phone number on Craigslist

by Tyler Munro

Coachella’s first weekend starts tomorrow and people are more than a little excited. For many, that means spending their hard earned cash on after-market passes. Love American guitarist Adam Thomas felt that demand first hand yesterday when, 20 minutes after his ad selling week one passes went up on Craigslist, he started receiving texts and phone calls in the hundreds. The problem? He wasn’t selling week one passes. He doesn’t have week one passes. Apparently, one of his friends was playing a prank.

Thomas says he’s selling some gear, so the first Craigslist call that came in didn’t catch him off guard, even if it was from out of state. But then the calls kept coming, and coming, and coming and… you get the idea.

“I couldn’t even turn [my] phone off,” said Thomas, adding that the calls were coming in too quickly to register on his phone. “I would press the off button on my iPhone, but before that shut off swipe could load I would have a dozen calls. They were coming in too fast.”

Lucky for him, Thomas says he’s got a great phone plan with unlimited texts and incoming calls. And, to his surprise, none of those texts or calls came with sexy propositions, a stunning revelation given everything we’ve come to know about Craigslist, and, if we’re being honest, Californians. He was at least offered wads of cash and, in one case, a juice smoothie. Check below for some screencaps, and be sure to note all the different area codes that contacted him.

In the end, he estimates the ad was only live for about 20 minutes, but the numbers still tell an interesting story: 412 texts, dozens of voicemails and one hilarious prank.