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November 12, 2005
The Chelsea rapist shopped on eBay
Posted by Dominic Basulto
The New York Daily News is dragging eBay's name through the mud in its continued investigation of the depravities surrounding suspected Chelsea rapist Peter Braunstein. Turns out Mr. Braunstein went shopping on eBay just days before his "sadistic Halloween sex attack," in order to pick up a legitimate-looking firefighter outfit.
If you don't know the story, it goes something like this... A crazed journalist-type gets the crazy idea of stalking a woman in her Chelsea apartment building. He then proceeds to buy firefighter gear on eBay and play dress-up for Halloween. On that same night, he starts a mini-blaze in the stalked woman's apartment building and impersonates a firefighter in order to gain unobstructed access to the woman's apartment. Then he drugged her and tied her up before engaging on a 13-hour orgy of raping and pillaging, some of it caught on videotape.
So, who's next on the New York Daily News' hitlist??? First, it was Internet chatrooms. Then, it was blogs. (Don't you know - all criminals keep sinister blogs with their devilish plots outlined on them?) Then, it was eBay. Maybe the suspected rapist Googled the woman's name on the Internet and then searched for photos of her on Flickr?
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1. Miller on November 12, 2005 08:00 AM writes...
The Daily News didn't drag eBay's name through the mud. The police, in trying to build a case against Braunstein, discovered that he purchased fireman's gear on eBay. The Daily News just reported that fact. Straight. There's nothing anti-eBay in the story. If anything, the story shows eBay to be good citizens. A quote from the story: "Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman, confirmed the popular Internet auction company has teamed up with the NYPD on the Braunstein case.
'They made a request in early November and we are working with them,' Durzy said."
More important, eBay's help might make it easier to catch the guy since: "The evidence prompted the NYPD to officially release Braunstein's name, his mug shot from a previous menacing arrest and security photos from a Times Square hotel where Braunstein checked in Nov. 1 - shortly after the Halloween attack."
I have a lot of problems with the Daily News, too, but in this particular instance you're stretching.
Permalink to Comment2. Dominic on November 12, 2005 08:30 AM writes...
Point well taken. I agree that the NYDN article wasn't meant as a negative piece about eBay -- but I also felt that the NYDN "story" wasn't a "story" unless it involved eBay. Sicko buys a firefighter costume at local Halloween shop in the West Village - big deal. Guy goes online to buy it on eBay - whoa! that' a story. Time to crackdown on Internet auctions and all that.
By "dragging through the mud," I simply meant to imply that eBay was being mentioned in a story about a sicko dirtbag rapist when it shouldn't have been mentioned at all. It's like saying, "The Chelsea rapist was listening to an iPod just minutes before the rape attempt." Does it matter? -- did the iPod have evil music from Ozzy Osbourne or marilyn manson on it?
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