Earlier this week, we ran a story about people selling positive pregnancy tests on Craigslist. The ads were targeted at ladies who might “need a little help holding onto your man through the holidays”—ostensibly, by lying to a commitment-shy hookup buddy about a bun in the oven.
Although we’ve seen these posts circulating around the Internet for a while now, they still raise many questions. Is this a real thing that women actually do, or did lady-hating MRA trolls make them up? If the former, what kind of person would actually buy one of these tests? And what kind of person would actually sell them?
We can’t answer the first question for sure, but we can answer the last two, thanks to Sandra (not her real name), a Brooklyn woman selling a positive pregnancy test on Craigslist. “I will not take any responsibility for the test after it is sold,” her (now-deleted) post read. “What you do with [it] is your business.”
Craigslist
When I reached out to Sandra to see if her post was legitimate, she responded a few hours after our original story went up. At first, all she said was that it was real.
“I’m a little strapped for cash here and my situation being pregnant and having a small child is a little bit hard when the father isn’t around,” she wrote. She told me she had a two-year-old, with another child on the way.
A few hours later, after reading our story, which referred to people buying fake pregnancy tests as “scum,” Sandra sent me another, less cordial e-mail.
“If you would like a real, genuine, answer I can give you one,” she wrote. “I would love to, anonymously of course, speak on behalf of my scummish ways.”
Here is Sandra’s side of the story.
This interview has been edited for length.
So for starters, just tell me why you did this, and how you got the idea for posting the ad in the first place.
First off, the whole thing is a joke to me. I was joking about it. I don’t know about other people who sell urine on Craigslist and stuff, but I was joking about it. What happened was, I posted my pregnancy test on Facebook, when I found out I was pregnant, and people were like, “You should put that on Craigslist.” I thought, “ I could do that shit.” I wanted to see if I’d get any responses.
Is the pregnancy test you posted on Facebook real?
That was my real test, [the one] that I posted on Facebook. I said, “Who wants one, twenty bucks?” But I did not intend on selling it. The [photo of the] test in the Craigslist ad, I got it off Google.
Why did you save the positive pregnancy test in the first place?
I was announcing it on Facebook. I posted my ultrasound as well. I found out I was pregnant for sure [on] Dec. 2. I posted it on my personal Facebook. I wasn’t advertising my tests or anything. And people started sending me Craigslist ads of people selling their tests and saying, “Hey, pee on a stick for me,” like, as a joke.
Sandra
Sandra
And when you posted it on Craigslist, did people respond?
Quite a few. I got 15 responses in three days, which is quite a lot for Craigslist ads. They’d say, “Prove it’s real,” and I’d send the real picture of me holding it. And I have a tattoo on my hand, so they could tell it was my hand. I’d show them whatever I had on my Facebook. Then they’d say they needed two or three [tests]. I said, “OK, I’m not giving you my urine, you come get it.” I’d give them a location, and then I wouldn’t show up. And some of these girls were honestly so desperate. They were telling me all these stories about why they needed it.
What kinds of things were they telling you?
They were telling me some pretty depressing stories. One of them told me her boyfriend was cheating on her, and she wanted one to show the other girl. I got another crazy story that the boyfriend’s mother didn’t like her, and she wanted to get the mother back. So she wanted to go to the mother’s house with one of those. That was the worst one.
Why were they telling you these stories? Did you ask them about it, or were they volunteering this information?
They were volunteering it. I posted it as a joke, and they’re telling me these life stories, literally. I even put in the thing, “What you do with it is none of my business.” I just wanted to see how many people responded.
Well, when I first reached out to you, you said it was legitimate, and the fact that you said “What you do with it is none of my business” in the post is what made me think it might be.
I just wanted to see who’d respond to it. And I’d screenshot some of the things these girls said to me, like, “Look how thirsty they are this week.” Like, I had a friend who did this as well. She led this guy on for eight months and told him she was pregnant, and I don’t know why she did it, because he was a monster. But after [eight months] that’s when the quote-unquote miscarriage happened.
These girls who are trying to trap men, let me tell you, it’s not gonna end well. Because once you have the quote-unquote miscarriage, they’re gonna leave and they’re not gonna feel obligated to stick with you.
So this is something you know that people do. It’s not an urban legend or anything.
No, it’s definitely real, and people definitely want [positive pregnancy tests]. They’re kind of in demand.
Have you met any of these women face-to-face? Did you consider selling it when you saw how much interest you were getting?
No, I have no interest in meeting them or selling my pregnancy test. I’m pregnant, and I have a two-year-old. I’m not in a situation to do it. It’s not a good transaction with a kid in your hand. My kid’s father doesn’t even know I’m pregnant. He’s in rehab, and they won’t even tell him I’m pregnant. Like, I’m not worried about this. I’m worried about what’s gonna happen when he comes out.
Have you gotten any angry e-mails from people asking ‘Why are you doing this?’
No. Not at all. The only angry e-mails I got is when I didn’t show up. They’d say, “Why didn’t you show up?” I’d say, “Because I’m not pregnant. Leave me alone.’”
So when you said you were strapped for cash, that wasn’t actually true?
No. I was joking. I’m sorry. I didn’t think someone from the press would actually e-mail me about this. But then again, these girls were mad at me for tricking them, because I didn’t show up with these tests, but they’re trying to play a joke and trick someone else. In my eyes, it’s karma.
Why did you respond to the requests at all?
I don’t know. I was bored. I had a lot of free time. And to be honest, it was entertaining. Like, I’ve been with my kid’s dad since I was 12. I’m 26 now. My kids were all planned. So I don’t understand [where these women are coming from]. I’ve never experienced that level of desperation.
Do you have any regrets about posting the ad, or sympathy for these women at all? Like you said, you have to reach a certain level of desperation to do this kind of thing.
No. I don’t regret it, because I saw what these women are truly about. I put them on Facebook and said men need to watch out and see what these women are doing. We put them on blast. They got what they deserved.
Photo by Esparta Palma/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)