Craigslist. Who can you trust?

I've done my share of Craigslisting.  I've listed my goats for sale but they didn't sell that way.  I bought 5 of the 6 goats I own on Craigslist, and I've tried bartering on there but that didn't go through.  Oh, I also got a chainlink kennel from there.  This week I saw an ad for a free chicken coop, fencing and 4 chickens.  I called about them and they'd already had someone interested but said they'd call me if it fell through.  It did.  She wanted the coop and chickens gone right away.  I made arrangements to pick it up the next morning.  My husband and I picked up a 19 year old son of a friend of ours to provide some extra muscle.  Not enough, it turned out.  We would have needed at least 3 or 4 more men to pick this coop up.  It was very well built and there was no way the 3 of us could have carried it to the truck.  We headed home and I called the lady and told her she could offer it up again since we couldn't get it.  I was disappointed.

The thing that I found so interesting about this experience is the way this woman shared information with me.  The day I arranged to pick it up she told me she didn't mind if I came when they weren't there.  She said the house would be unlocked if I needed to use a phone or the bathroom.  She told me where she would be that day, which was more than an hour away.  Why would she tell a complete stranger this?  Maybe I have an honest voice over the phone.  After she got my message that we couldn't lift it she called and said if I really wanted it maybe I could disassemble it and get it home.   For some reason she really wants me to have it.  While she said I could take my time getting the coop, she does want the chickens gone ASAP.  I spoke to her again today for probably 15 minutes.  By now we've become phone friends.   I told her I would come tomorrow with my son and we'd get the chickens and begin taking the coop apart.  Again she told me something I wonder if she would have told a man who answered the ad.  She told me she was home alone, that her husband and son were out of town this week.   My husband and I have been known to invite complete strangers to our home but for some reason this seemed strange to even me.  I don't know why, since we knew a guy for only 2 or 3 days and invited him to house sit for us for 3 weeks while we were out of the country.  Still......