TMJ4 screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

He thought it was funny.

He was alone in that.

Back in 2012, Jason Willis of Racine County, Wisconsin, thought it would be funny to take out personal ads on Craigslist in his neighbor's name. Now he's going to find it hard to place a Craigslist ad to sell his furniture.

His neighbor is a woman. The ads were sex solicitations. Men came to her door, one dressed as nature intended.

The woman wasn't amused. Under the pseudonym "Dawn," she told TMJ4-TV: "His idea of a joke is much different than other people's idea of a joke."

"Dawn" had no idea that this was a joke at all, until one of the men who appeared at her door, unannounced, told her that he'd got her particulars from a Craigslist ad.

He'd seen her picture. Now here he was, clad only in a trench coat.

This Craigslist-based "joke" has been around for a while. A number of people, seeking merely humor or a twisted form of revenge, have run ads purporting to be from neighbors or friends.

In one Connecticut case, the ad was headlined: "Sex partner wanted."

In the Wisconsin case, Willis was charged with felony identity theft but pleaded guilty to misappropriating identity information to harm someone's reputation, according to Racine's Journal Times. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and then another 18 months of extended supervision, the Journal Times reported, but the judge said the prison time won't kick in unless he violates the terms, which include a ban on using the Internet during that time.

Racine County Circuit Court Judge Allan "Pat" Torhorst told TMJ4: "If you want to drive drunk, you're not allowed to drive. To me, a public availability of the Internet -- to use it the way he did -- is unconscionable. Everybody knows it's wrong. He knew it was wrong. He admitted it."

It's hard to imagine how this might be enforced. He can surely use a friend's computer, go to an Internet cafe, or even use someone's phone. Cutting someone from the Web isn't so simple.

And what of "Dawn"? She told TMJ4 she would have felt safer if Willis had gone to jail.

Willis has 30 days to disconnect from the Web. If not, off to prison he'll go.

He might not find that funny at all. Prisons are known for the proliferation of unwelcome gentleman callers.