Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/12/2015 (1731 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was an ad on a popular buy/sell website that informed a Winnipeg family their house was up for rent.

The problem was it wasn’t.

The photos included six-year-old photos of the Descartes home.

Jeni Descartes said she was informed by her brother-in-law Dec. 22 their house, which they own, was listed on Kijiji, a popular national buying and selling website in Canada.

At first, and the only comical part of the ordeal, said Descartes, her husband thought she might be leaving him.

"They called me up and said, ‘Is there something you want to tell me?’" she said. "And I said, ‘No. That can’t possibly be true.’ Apparently it was there. I typed in Charleswood, and lo and behold, there was my house."

There the farcical bit came to a screeching halt.

Descartes called up the previous owner, whom she knew personally, to see if they had made an error.

They hadn’t.

"We then started sending emails to the ad itself, but to no response," she said.

The ad provided a complete description of Descartes’ home, minus some small details, and included pictures from six years previously when the family first bought it, before they renovated it.

The move-in date was slated for Feb. 1, 2016, and came with instruction to drive by and see it, but also with a caveat: "Please do NOT disturb existing tenants, please send me an email here."

The cost to rent was listed at $1,600.

The ad provided no name or phone number by which to get a hold of the person who posted it.

"The ad was posted on Dec. 18," Descartes said. "It was taken down on Dec. 22 after we got in touch with Kijiji. I had phoned police as well, but they said they couldn’t really do anything about it and to get a hold of the website.

"We also found the ad on five other sites, so we had to get in contact with them to have it taken down as well."

Descartes said the ad had more than 100 hits before it was taken down. On her usually quiet street, she said more cars started frequenting her area.

"At first, we didn’t think anything of it until we saw this ad," she said.

Descartes said this holiday season has been a trying time for her family. Her father died in November, and having to worry about people driving by with young kids at home, ages 13 and 14, things haven’t been so easy.

"I felt very violated, there were pictures of the inside of my home," she said. "And I had all of my neighbours questioning whether I actually owned my home. It was a little embarrassing."

Meanwhile, Descartes said she was happy with Kijiji’s response to taking down the ad immediately, but said she feels there should be more proof required when posting an ad for a home.

"I use the site for my business and myself, but as a homeowner, some proof should be required to show you own the home to prevent scams like this happening," she said.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca