This is too rich: Freecycle gives red light to ad seeking a junker

Patrick Hamilton saw himself as honoring the Freecycle credo: "Making the world a better place [by] keeping countless tons of reusable items out of local landfills."

But when Hamilton, 33, of Coon Rapids, posted an ad on the Freecycle website seeking a car -- and not just any car, but an inoperable piece of junk -- his request was reviewed and spewed back at him faster than you can say red light, green light.

"They said I couldn't ask for a car," said Hamilton, owner of Elite Woodcraft, a high-end cabinetry business. "It's not like I was asking for a Hummer."

Here's what he asked for:

A 4 door car. The car can be inop. Motor problems, trans problem ok. We are trying to help a single mom with two kids have a reliable car to drive. I'm a factory-trained gm mechanic so i will buy the parts and repair what is needed to fix the car. I will also arrange for pick up if needed. I have a friend that owns a body shop so light accidents are ok as well.

It's hard to imagine a better use for Free-cycle, (www.freecycle.org), the highly praised and wholly grass-roots online recycling network. Since its inception in 2003, the clever concept has exploded, with nearly 5,000 groups and almost 7 million members worldwide. Unfortunately, meteoric growth often means the end of a certain small-business attribute called common sense.

Within about an hour, Hamilton's post was taken down. He got the same treatment when he posted it again on other local Freecycle websites (they exist for Anoka, Ramsey and St. Croix counties, as well as in St. Paul and Minneapolis). The reason? "No luxury items allowed." Attached were links to the site's rules on what items can and cannot be "offered" or "wanted."

I didn't see anything prohibiting someone from seeking out 2,000 pounds of currently useless steel.

Hamilton moved to the Twin Cities from Wisconsin a few months ago, and was visiting a friend when a car broke down right in front of the house. The car's owner, a single mother with children ages 5 and 3, "was very anxious to get to her second job," Hamilton learned. So he did something quite remarkable in these times: He loaned her his 1995 Mercedes.

Overnight Hamilton, who has an associate's degree in automotive care, gave her car a complete brake job, tune-up and new battery at his own expense, to the tune of about $345. "She didn't know what to say," Hamilton said. "She was almost embarrassed that someone did that. I felt bad for her that she's working so hard and can't catch a break."

Despite his efforts, the woman's car still wasn't going to last much longer. So he joined Freecycle. Briefly. During the tiny window before Hamilton's post was pulled, Cheryl Madigan, 50, of White Bear Lake, saw it.

"I have a car that fits your criteria perfectly," she wrote to Hamilton. "It's a mess, a 1998 Mercury Mystique (which, she said, mechanics call her Mercury Mistake.)

Freecycle founder Deron Beal wrote in an e-mail Tuesday that reaction to Hamilton's post sounded rather "grumpy." Still, he defended his volunteer moderators, who put in 20-plus hours a week "and are the salt of the earth." Perhaps if Hamilton's heading had read "Inoperable Car," he suggested, the ad might still be up.

Not necessarily.

"I'm sorry, but this bothers me," said Minneapolis Free-cycle moderator Bobbi Post of Cottage Grove, one of those who pulled it. She admits that she's "sort of strict" when it comes to postings, and "it's doubly hard when someone complains so loudly."

Post, who volunteers about 40 hours a week, noted that membership polls sometimes are conducted to decide whether rules should be changed or eased. "But where do we draw the line on posts for vehicles?" she wondered. "It gets very frustrating when we want to help people get things like cars, and others would complain that it's a luxury item."

Anybody think the Mistake's a luxury item?

"It doesn't matter if it takes up your time," he said. "If we can help one person make it a little easier, it all becomes worth it."