The Craigslist ad read: “Trying to prank your mom, dad, boyfriend, or even keep your boyfriend from leaving you at the moment? Selling positive pregnancy test, no questions asked!” followed by a phone number.
The cost to shatter someone’s life — 15 bucks.
“I seen it on the news,” said the pregnant woman from Akron who placed the ad. “It’s a way to make money.”
During a recent interview, the soon-to-be mother, who refused to give her name, said she had yet to receive calls, but the ad had just appeared on the Craigslist site earlier in the day.
Hers wasn’t the only ad on the classified advertisements website.
“Positive pregnancy tests … (in Akron) for any purpose. Email for details.”
The practice isn’t unique to the Akron area. There have been similar Craigslist ads in cities throughout the nation, including Toledo, Indianapolis, Chicago and Phoenix — all about $10 more expensive than the local going rate.
EBay also has ads.
Home pregnancy tests work by detecting the pregnancy hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin, in urine. According to the Mayo Clinic, with most tests the end of a dipstick is held in a stream of urine or immersed in a container of collected urine for five to 10 seconds. A few minutes later, the dipstick reveals the test result.
Mary McCracken, clinical director at Children’s Advantage, which offers family behavioral health services in Ravenna, noted that in hard economic times, people seek all kinds of ways to make money.
“Maybe she doesn’t think she has any marketable skills,” McCracken said of the woman selling the tests. “So maybe I wouldn’t judge her other than she doesn’t have much of a moral compass.”
But the buyers who are out to trick someone have even deeper issues.
The girls or women who are buying these pregnancy tests have some psychological issues when it comes to keeping their man, McCracken said. Instead of trapping them, the women need to find someone who wants them for who they are, she said.
Kim Hone-McMahan can be reached at 330-996-3742 or kmcmahan@thebeaconjournal.com.