The Hipster Grifter

April 15, 2009 8:56 AM

Kari Ferrell is on Salt Lake City's Most Wanted List. Apparently Ms. Ferrell has moved from Utah to New York and has been hanging out with the hipsters in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Within the space of a half-hour, Ms. Ferrell was peppering him with questions about his sexual history—how many women he’d slept with and so on. “She was coming on to me, and I was super into it for the first part of it,” he said. “I realized I could have fun after work—but then I was like, ‘Let me check this girl out.’”
posted by R. Mutt (147 comments total)

Bobby talked it over with some friends. “Basically, the consensus was to stick around because you like this girl, but don’t get too attached, because she’s going to be dead in three months,” Bobby said.

Slick.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 9:00 AM on April 15 [2 favorites has favorites]

Where's the batshitinsane tag?
posted by kldickson at 9:03 AM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

Is the focus of this post that the SLC Police are hip enough to use YouTube to make most wanted postettes, or that she's still on the lamb and conned an adult/freebie magazine staff for a week? One of those is pretty interesting.
posted by cavalier at 9:05 AM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

I don't get why this is a story. Manipulative person (at best) lies, cheats and steals. This is unknown to The Observer? Or is it the "hipster" angle that's the newsworthy part? I just don't get it.
posted by DU at 9:05 AM on April 15

she's still on the lamb

The focus of this post, quite clearly, is that this kid is baaaad to the bone.
posted by gompa at 9:08 AM on April 15 [21 favorites has favorites]

Yeah, I don't mean to piss on anyone's cornflakes but this is standard practice for spoiled-brat-to-scene-darling types.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 9:09 AM on April 15 [2 favorites has favorites]

I dunno. The real-life femme fatale angle is kind of interesting for me, and based on the picture and the story, it's like she came straight out of central casting for this sort of thing. Like she was specifically bred to be hipster-bait.
posted by Navelgazer at 9:12 AM on April 15 [2 favorites has favorites]

What I don't get is that none of these hipster douchebags thought to call the fucking SLC police after they Googled her.

Jebus.
posted by RakDaddy at 9:12 AM on April 15 [9 favorites has favorites]

It’s likely that when Kari Ferrell walked into the Vice magazine offices in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, last month to interview for an administrative assistant job, they thought they’d hit the jackpot. Ms. Ferrell ... had a huge tattoo of a dragon across her chest and ... a tattoo on her back that read “I Love Beards.” ... They hired her on the spot.

No shit. That must have been some job interview.
posted by mudpuppie at 9:19 AM on April 15 [10 favorites has favorites]

The focus of this post, quite clearly, is that this kid is baaaad to the bone.

Oh, ewe kidder.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:19 AM on April 15 [5 favorites has favorites]

Huh, I thought it was interesting. That girl is nuts.
posted by delmoi at 9:20 AM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm with DU on this one. What is the point?
posted by Pollomacho at 9:22 AM on April 15

RakDaddy: "What I don't get is that none of these hipster douchebags thought to call the fucking SLC police after they Googled her."

It would be a local call for me, but I'm still not going to do it. Those Williamsburg hipsters deserve whatever they get.
posted by Joe Beese at 9:23 AM on April 15 [5 favorites has favorites]

Somewhere, Quentin Tarantino is frantically writing down notes and ransacking his vinyl collection.
posted by The Whelk at 9:24 AM on April 15 [24 favorites has favorites]

Apart from other things you can tell how nutty someone is by their pick-up lines:

“I want to give you a hand job with my mouth,” signed “Korean Abdul-Jabbar.”

“I want you to throw a hot dog down my hall.”

These, to me, say run away. Fast.
posted by ob at 9:25 AM on April 15 [3 favorites has favorites]

Never trust a woman made out of internet memes.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:28 AM on April 15 [49 favorites has favorites]

A friend of mine once got ensnared by someone like that. I and every single one of his friends warned him but he did not take any heed. Luckily he didn't lose much in the way of money, but tons in the way of self-respect. My friend is otherwise smart and savvy but he lost all perspective.
posted by Kattullus at 9:29 AM on April 15

Boy she FUGLY in the headshot.. hipsters clean up good, eh? Can't wait til they nail her.
posted by ChickenringNYC at 9:31 AM on April 15

Oh and I forgot to add my two cents to this sentiment.. I'm glad the hipsters were too fucking moronic to sick the cops on this crazy skank.
posted by ChickenringNYC at 9:33 AM on April 15

Attention is a hell of a drug.
posted by formless at 9:33 AM on April 15 [10 favorites has favorites]

I'll add my voice to the chorus of those who just don't get it...
posted by JeffK at 9:34 AM on April 15

The article says she could be in Philadelphia. I'll keep a look out.


*combs beard*
posted by orme at 9:34 AM on April 15 [9 favorites has favorites]

I knew a person like this once, who also faked having cancer. Let me tell you, that is a weird day, the day you realize your "friend" has been lying about dying. For one thing, it doesn't happen all at once. It takes multiple conversations with other friends, piecing together odd details that just don't gel, and then one day it all comes together and you say, Holy shit.

A weird, weird day.
posted by Bookhouse at 9:35 AM on April 15

this kid is baaaad to the bone

These young kids today wouldn't know bad if it bit them on the ass! Back in my day, hipsters were so bad....
posted by CynicalKnight at 9:38 AM on April 15

I would have posted this for the title alone.

Hipsters or not, I can't wish a grifter on anyone. Well, maybe Vice Magazine, but that's because they validate hipster douchebag lifestyles.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:38 AM on April 15 [3 favorites has favorites]

I think that it's interesting because it's a classic American story of someone who wants to reinvent themselves by doing a geographic--hello, Jay Gatsby--and yet all you have to do is Google them and there's their mug shot. And plus there's the simplicity of her hooks, basically just "I have cancer" and "I want to have sex with you right now."
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:40 AM on April 15 [3 favorites has favorites]

I'm in the "don't get it" category as well.

The fact that she keeps using her real name instead of adopting aliases and wearing shirts that cover her giant freakin' dragon tattoo indicates that she's got serious mental problems rather than being something as chic as a "hipster grifter."
posted by Shepherd at 9:41 AM on April 15 [4 favorites has favorites]

Oh, ewe kidder.

I don't think you really mint that. Try louder.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:43 AM on April 15

I knew a girl like this in college. I didn't know her very well, though I met her a few times and a couple of friends were taken in by her. She claimed to be dying of cancer, scammed a lot of money off a lot of people, and lied compulsively about the weirdest things.

I've dealt with con artists and liars and bullshitters, and though she was all of these things, she really didn't come across that way. It's strange -- the times that I met her, she didn't seem manipulative, and I didn't get a "liar liar pants on fire" vibe from her, even though she was saying things that were very obviously false. She just seemed very vulnerable and a little nutty, almost like she believed her own lies. She portrayed herself as a perpetual victim -- a poor abandoned birdling that just needed love and nurturing. Despite all her elaborate lies, I guess she really did need help in some ways -- though the cancer thing was fake, it did turn out that she was severely anorexic (that's why she looked so sick all the time). I guess a lot of people can't resist that cry for help.
posted by ourobouros at 9:44 AM on April 15

Lesson: Never give money to hipsters!
posted by kldickson at 9:48 AM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

What I don't get is that none of these hipster douchebags thought to call the fucking SLC police after they Googled her

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to make a long distance call on a fixed-gear phone?
posted by dersins at 9:49 AM on April 15 [69 favorites has favorites]

this is a strange article. It was interesting, and I'm glad it was posted. But really really weird. The story seems to be "Teenager in Utah passes a lot of bad checks. goes to jail. skips bail and heads to new york. once in new york, cons hipsters into giving her rides to the hospital for no reason?"

i mean, we're talking about somebody who seems to have come to new york expressly for the purpose of telling new yorkers she has cancer... and that's about it. where's the grift? at least in utah, she got some money out of it.
posted by shmegegge at 9:50 AM on April 15

shmegegge: " at least in utah, she got some money out of it."

Yeah, but we don't have a Chinese restaurant worth shit.
posted by Joe Beese at 9:51 AM on April 15

Oh, to be twenty again.
posted by elwoodwiles at 10:03 AM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

That's a "don't"
posted by phirleh at 10:05 AM on April 15

Oh, to be twenty again.

Oh, to live on Bedford Av'nue
With the hipsters and the colored tattoos,
You cant be twenty on Bedford Av'nue
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.....
posted by dersins at 10:08 AM on April 15 [9 favorites has favorites]

elwoodwiles: Oh, to be twenty again.

Ah yes, the halcyon days of youth, cheating people out of money and pretend-going to the hospital for cancer. Those were the days, my friend.
posted by Kattullus at 10:08 AM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

dersins: you are my hero for the day.
posted by RakDaddy at 10:11 AM on April 15

Korean Abdul-Jabbar is my bad band name of the day for today.
posted by snofoam at 10:17 AM on April 15

One thing that sticks out: why would anyone willingly spend hours in an NY hospital waiting room?
posted by sciencegeek at 10:21 AM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

It's an interesting story but a poorly-written article. There's a lot there, a lot of anguish and craziness behind her stories and her cons. Too bad the reporter couldn't put together the narrative better. And to all those who say this girl isn't really conning anyone: this is what real grifters are like. The ones you see in the movies are a minor fraction of conmen. Most grifters aren't Sawyer from Lost or Danny Ocean or Michael Caine and Steve Martin from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Most grifters are exactly like this girl, just fucked up and building one lie on top of another. "Catch Me If You Can" did a pretty good job of representing what real con artists do and how they behave.
posted by incessant at 10:21 AM on April 15 [4 favorites has favorites]

Rodriguezx, a commenter on the Observer website, beats all of us:

"A few days later, one of Ms. Ferrell’s new colleagues came by her desk. “I said, ‘Excuse me, miss, is [her boss] downstairs?’”
VICE IS BIG ENOUGH TO NEED A TWO FLOOR OFFICE? Shenanigans!
posted by incessant at 10:24 AM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

She sounds a lot like one of these, by the way, going to show once again that what seems like fun in movies is often not all that great, really, in real life.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 10:24 AM on April 15 [9 favorites has favorites]

BPD + young girl + "hipster" = Metafilter shitting itself to hate her
posted by P.o.B. at 10:25 AM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

I like how it says "Long story short" and then proceeds to go on for 90% of the first page plus two additional pages.

Someone doesn't understand what that phrase means, I think.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:28 AM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

Requisite Gawker post
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 10:31 AM on April 15

Korean Abdul-Jabbar is my bad band name of the day for today.

You better cash in on the meme frenzy now my friend. Tomorrow your songs "Hotdog in the Hallway" and "HandJ with the Mouth" will just be dirty, not dirty-witty.

Here's your fixed gear phone. Also useful for throwing at others in anger (as told to me and my brother by a thrift store owner).
posted by filthy light thief at 10:33 AM on April 15

on the lamb

Baaaad call...it's "lam." No sheep involved, baby or otherwise. Depending on what kind of crime scene you're fleeing....
posted by emjaybee at 10:34 AM on April 15

shmegegge: In the article it says she got the guy in new york to deposit checks for her and then give her the money. She got over $10,000 doing that to one guy.
posted by Iax at 10:35 AM on April 15

BPD + young girl + "hipster" = Metafilter shitting itself to hate her

Link to someone hating her? The unifying theme I see in this thread is "this happens all the time, why all the shock"?
posted by DU at 10:36 AM on April 15

Also, I'd sky hook that Korean Abdul-Jabbar.
posted by snofoam at 10:41 AM on April 15

She’s saying they did a gastroendoscopy, and maybe she has a tumor and it’s throwing clots and she’s bleeding. I almost went to medical school—it wasn’t the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard.

Ah, young love.
posted by Mayor West at 10:42 AM on April 15

Has she been caught yet?
posted by ob at 10:42 AM on April 15

I got taken by a grifter once, a guy from Ghana who had been living at the Universität Stuttgart for years, always "expecting his government to clear his funds". Like ourobouros up there, I agree that you just don't get a liar vibe from people like this -- I think they truly believe what they're telling you, as they're telling you.

So anyway, this guy borrowed money from Peter to pay Paul, and at one point I loaned him a few hundred DM which, of course, I never saw again. Then I left for a year, leaving my bank account in the hands of a friend (a completely unrelated friend, I should stress). Well, when I returned to Germany, I found that my friend had loaned the grifter some 600 DM from the treasury of a university club -- i.e. money that wasn't hers -- and had later emptied my account to pay that back.

Talking about it now, it's obvious, all this -- but at the time, you know, you're just helping a friend over a hump. The fact that the grifter bummed a ride from me to buy a TV for his family back home didn't even register until much later.

Very nice guy. It was weird.
posted by Michael Roberts at 10:43 AM on April 15

Rule #1: No crazy chicks.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 10:45 AM on April 15

Not well written. Not interesting. Unsubscribe.
posted by eggman at 10:51 AM on April 15

This article is whatever the opposite of newsworthy is. I suspect that the staff at the Observer simply knows someone involved in this "con".... ergo it's just gossip.

I base these suspicions on absolutely nothing other than the existence of these 3 pages of internet boredom.
posted by butterstick at 10:51 AM on April 15

“I want to give you a hand job with my mouth,” signed “Korean Abdul-Jabbar.”

But all I got was a blowjob from her hand!
posted by Ratio at 10:58 AM on April 15 [5 favorites has favorites]

"She really had me going—my first instinct is not to Google someone when I meet them."

See, there's your problem right there.
posted by katillathehun at 11:05 AM on April 15 [2 favorites has favorites]

shmegegge: In the article it says she got the guy in new york to deposit checks for her and then give her the money. She got over $10,000 doing that to one guy.

i'm pretty sure that was one of the utah guys.
posted by shmegegge at 11:05 AM on April 15

What self-loathingrespecting hipster would be taken in by a girl with a chest piece of a dragon? That is totally hitting the wrong note, and not in a dissonant, post-rock sort of way, either.
posted by defenestration at 11:08 AM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

I read about her last year on some LJ community. Her angry friends in Utah were carrying on about it.

So much for all those AskMe questions about "OH NOES I WROTE AN ILL-ADVISED COMMENT ON A BLOG AND NOW I WILL NEVER GET A JOB." Apparently, nobody at Vice knows how to use the Google.
posted by Sidhedevil at 11:10 AM on April 15 [7 favorites has favorites]

I remember those days, when it was shocking that people were crazy, that people lie, and the world isn't full of shiny friends who want to give you handjobs with their mouths.
posted by elwoodwiles at 11:18 AM on April 15 [7 favorites has favorites]

The things we do for lust...
posted by Mister_A at 11:18 AM on April 15

Ehhhh, these people live in Williamsburg. They've already been ripped off.
posted by not_on_display at 11:19 AM on April 15 [5 favorites has favorites]

Never trust a woman made out of internet memes.

For example.
posted by Ratio at 11:20 AM on April 15 [4 favorites has favorites]

So the trick to being a grifter is to also be kind of skanky?
posted by chunking express at 11:33 AM on April 15

Related: I guess.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 11:40 AM on April 15

foxy_hedgehog: "Requisite Gawker post"

Sister site Jezebel wants you to know...

Farrell is by no means emblematic of Asians, Asian women, women...

Thanks for the reassurance.
posted by Joe Beese at 11:41 AM on April 15

Also related. Geez.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 11:42 AM on April 15

Baaaad call...it's "lam." No sheep involved, baby or otherwise. Depending on what kind of crime scene you're fleeing....
posted by emjaybee

Still makes me chuckle Simpson's moment: Grandpa Simpson was getting ready to run from the cops and said "Call me mint jelly, because I'm on the lam!"
posted by marxchivist at 11:47 AM on April 15

Where's the batshitboring tag?
posted by univac at 11:56 AM on April 15

I got the cancer lie once from an ex, but he had already told me that his kids from a previous relationship had died in a car crash (he did have kids, but they weren't dead), so on the grand scheme of "shit that you don't lie about", I guess the mom-having-cancer thing wasn't so bad.
posted by hopeless romantique at 11:57 AM on April 15 [2 favorites has favorites]

I like how it says "Long story short" and then proceeds to go on for 90% of the first page plus two additional pages.

That heading references a quote in the first paragraph of that section:

"It seemed like the two of them were the only ones old enough to drink, Bobby recalled. They started talking, and, 'long story short, I go home with her...'"

It's not the author's statement.
posted by ericb at 11:58 AM on April 15

Just thought I'd pipe in. We called the SLC police after seeing the poster and they told us "Great, if the NYPD pick her up we can push for extradition." We then called the NYPD who took down her info and said they'd "look into it," and that's the last we've heard from them. A reader wrote in saying she'd been arrested sometime last week, but then Monday we got an email from somebody who'd run into her over the weekend and said she was claiming that the whole thing was a big joke and that she still worked for us. So who knows.

Anyways, weird circumstance, but very excited to learn about this new Google site. Seems like a pretty handy resource.
posted by guywhoworksforvice(sorry) at 12:01 PM on April 15 [34 favorites has favorites]

I actually found this very interesting. It's always amazing to me how skilled con artists can be, and how little conscience they have about it. They have no qualms about using something as serious as cancer purely for money. And they don't always have to be adorable little pixie-haired hipster women to pull it off, either. Other people's sympathy is a powerful tool. I had an encounter with someone like this once, but I only knew her online. Fortunately for those of us she had going for a very brief time, she was so bad at it that her game was pretty obvious early on.

That and she said David Bowie had visited her in the hospital.

And that she'd send the mafia after us for calling her bluff.
posted by katillathehun at 12:03 PM on April 15

Ha! Hiya, guywhoworksforvice(sorry). Welcome.

/cortex
posted by dersins at 12:05 PM on April 15 [3 favorites has favorites]

VICE IS BIG ENOUGH TO NEED A TWO FLOOR OFFICE? Shenanigans!
They used to have a THREE floor office, but that's another story.
posted by Floydd at 12:06 PM on April 15 [5 favorites has favorites]

I frequent the site where the Williamsburg guy contacted the SLC people. It was pretty fascinating to watch them compare notes. It was also kind of funny to see the underground hipster network--SLC hipsters (or indie musicians, really) collaborating with Williamsburgers.
posted by mecran01 at 12:11 PM on April 15

What I find really interesting about this story is how much there is online, like the Rock Salt forum Sidhedevil linked to and has her ex-boyfriend Casey venting.
posted by Kattullus at 12:31 PM on April 15

This reminds me way too much of our own AccordionGuy's tale of love, loss, and compulsive lying called "The Girl Who Cried Webmaster...
posted by evadery at 12:32 PM on April 15 [9 favorites has favorites]

From a comment to the blogpost Inspector.Gadget linked to: "It's sad and pathetic that there are so many Kari's in this world who are so eager and willing to take advantage of nice people. After something like this happens it makes it harder to be one of the nice people, but don't let the Kari's ruin the niceness"

Yet another reason to insist on the accent mark over the 'a' in my name. It's Kári, dammit. The niceness is safe from me.
posted by Kattullus at 12:43 PM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

Hiya vice-guy:

More info about this would be appreciated, was she kind of a douchebag for example? I find it fascinating precisely because in the little scenes I've been associated with over the years there are often cute young women appearing out of nowhere charming everyone they can and scamming for money sex and connections, then moving on. I always wondered what they were running away from.

Reminds me a bit of the much-sadder Brandi Rose story in the poker world.

Good post, please the ignore habitual dickhead threadshitters who seem to think that if something doesn't interest them it's because it's boring.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 12:52 PM on April 15 [2 favorites has favorites]

You know, I don't want to piss on the guy who works for Vice or anything, but this seems like the kind of person Vice would interview if it hadn't been them getting the shaft (albeit in a minor way).

And I say that as a person who reads Vice.
posted by lumpenprole at 2:06 PM on April 15

For a second, I thought this was about Dax.
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 2:08 PM on April 15

heh heh... Now, crafty lady, you shall face Internet justice! [via]
posted by Joe Beese at 2:09 PM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

This just goes to show you that nothing good can ever come out of straight edge.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 2:15 PM on April 15 [4 favorites has favorites]

Man, I bet she's regretting that tatoo.
posted by delmoi at 2:35 PM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

I had a friend in high school who told us she had cancer on her spine and that her father was keeping it a secret from her mother (so we couldn't talk about it in front of her parents). She got found out because she forgot she had told the lie. Like, she was complaining about how hard her year had been (fight with boyfriend, problems in Trig).
Her: (list of bad things)
Other friend: and you had cancer!
Her: ... oh... riiiiiight... and I had cancer.
posted by prefpara at 2:43 PM on April 15 [3 favorites has favorites]

no one's mentioned kaycee nicole yet?
posted by maura at 2:49 PM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

More info about this would be appreciated, was she kind of a douchebag for example?

She was only here for three days before the proverbial shit went down, so I doubt anyone was able to get a really full gauge on her personality. She seemed nice enough, maybe a little artificially social with everybody, but I'm not sure if that's because she was scanning for marks or just being a person with a new job. Aside from that, her only standout qualities were her complete and utter bewilderment at working with spreadsheets and the shamelessness in her claim, when called out for trying to get free swag from ad clients, that somebody must have snuck onto her computer while she was in the bathroom and sent those emails as "a prank." (This was late on day three.)

Wish there was more interesting business to report, but that's about it. I'm slightly shocked at how long of legs this little story has had today, and also that nobody has noted Kari's resemblance to early-90s TV griftrix Josie Packard.
posted by guywhoworksforvice(sorry) at 3:10 PM on April 15 [4 favorites has favorites]

She'll probably get an alias, move to the Silicon Valley, start working with non-profits, and be speaking at TED next year.
posted by markkraft at 3:13 PM on April 15 [3 favorites has favorites]

I once had my wallet stolen by a "friend" who needed a place to crash for awhile. Of course, I thought I had lost it somewhere, because we had all gone out for groceries and the like.

Afterwards, I got a huge phone bill, as they had used my phone card extensively, and shared it with a few others. At that point, I still didn't know who had done this to me.

I got my revenge, though... I went through the phone bill and called each and every one of the numbers, getting people's names and letting them know that someone had called them long distance on such-and-such a date/time, using my phone card, which they stole from me.

A few calls into the list, a woman replied saying "Oh, my God... I bet it's _____. He stayed with me a few months back, and some of my things disappeared afterwards."

I then proceeded to let everyone on that phone list know that _____ had been doing this. Turns out others had been in the same situation, and hadn't put things together. With each call, friends and relatives turned against him, and his bridges and support network were decimated.

I then, of course, called the police and let them know what I found out.

About two days later, I got a call from ______, who at first threatened, and then pleaded with me to stop calling his friends. I told him that it was too late, that the police know everything that I did, that he'd probably have a warrant out for his arrest shortly, and that he might want to consider turning himself in.

Oh, and I let him know that he deserved it, and that it was the least I could do for such a "friend".

Payback is sweet at times.
posted by markkraft at 3:39 PM on April 15 [17 favorites has favorites]

Maybe this has been covered above but it hit my 'shit i hate' knee jerk reflex:

You don't go on the lamb, you go on the lam. Yeah?
posted by spicynuts at 4:32 PM on April 15

Yes, it has been covered, with mint jelly, even.
posted by R. Mutt at 4:39 PM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

There is this saying:

"You can't swindle an honest man."

In this case it might be true.
posted by tkchrist at 4:50 PM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

Oh hipsters, shall you ever stop annoying and amusing me to no end?
posted by bardic at 5:11 PM on April 15

I sometimes go out on a limb.
posted by everichon at 5:14 PM on April 15

once at a summer orchestra festival.. where the participants are housed together in groups of four, in rental homes throughout this small skiing town.. well, there was a house of four girls, one of whom was a little, shall we say.. emotional.. would always stay home when everyone would be going out partying.. anyway two of the girls had a bottle of vodka in the freezer.. and they'd come home and find that the vodka had "miraculously" frozen over. upon asking the girl if she was drinking the vodka and replacing it with water, she played dumb. haha, what a hoot it was! i think we all had fun trying to call her out. until she broke down sobbing. well, maybe it was cruel, but hey, kids can be that way sometimes.
posted by ChickenringNYC at 5:14 PM on April 15

maura, I was thinking more u.n. owen, but, yeah, we've seen this sort of thing before here.
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:45 PM on April 15

Again, I'm fascinated and slightly perturbed by how much of this story happened online. I was made queasy by the fact that in one place I came across her phone number and then I found a reminiscence about two then-friends of her breaking into her abode, for reasons unknown, to find her entire domicile covered in canine feces. Strange bird, this Kari Ferrell.
posted by Kattullus at 7:26 PM on April 15

Mr jb, here:

All this is actually relatively easy to explain if you assume that Ferrell is a psychopath. Let's score her behaviour, as reported in the article, on the PCL-R:

1: Aggressive narcissism.
Glibness and superficial charm? Check.
Grandiose sense of self-worth? undetermined
Pathological lying? Check
Conning/manipulative? Check
Lack of remorse? Check
Shallow affect? Undetermined
Callous/lack of empathy? No information, but I'm willing to say yes, given how she strings people along.

2: Socially deviant lifestyle

need for stimulation? Looks like a yes
parasitic lifestyle? Check
Poor behavioural control? Check
Promiscuous sexual behaviour? Rather sounds like it (although its debatable whether this is 'deviant' in her social circle)
Lack or realistic long-term goals? Sounds like this too
Impulsivity? Check
Irresponsiblity? Check
Juvenile delinquency? No info
Early behavioural problems? Ditto
Revocation of conditional release? Maybe... I don't think this was specifically mentioned.

3: Other traits
short-term marriages? Well not really, but short term relationships definatly
criminal versatility? Sure sounds like it.

In short, and with all due disclaimers that I'm not a clinical psychologist and I've never met this person and I'm totally basing these thoughts on the hearsay of a newspaper and the SLCPD.... With all those caveats, I think there may be a distinct possibility that this woman is a low social cognition psychopath. I can certainly say that the description presented here is very consonant with the descriptions in The Mask of Sanity.
posted by jb at 7:26 PM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

This story is amazing for the simple fact that shes conning people who could look her unique name up online easily. It's like she flirted or had sex with people and made them 10 points dumber!

I'm also suprised this kind of thing or post-sex home invasions don't happen more often with one night stands being more common.
posted by Freecola at 7:37 PM on April 15

Yeah, seriously, this person sounds like a sociopath, I'm with jb. I'm not a psychologist/psychiatrist either but I have worked in a mental institution. SO THERE.

What is truly interesting though is how much is documented online, as others have pointed out.
posted by dubitable at 8:08 PM on April 15

I think there may be a distinct possibility that this woman is a low social cognition psychopath

Yeah, seriously, this person sounds like a sociopath

Oh, great! Let's start offering amateurish armchair diagnoses of someone based solely on what we've read about them in a few sensationalized articles and blog posts! Here, I'll start:

- Metafilter suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder ("a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy")

- Metatalk suffers from Histrionic Personality Disorder ("pervasive attention-seeking behavior ")

- Askme suffers from Dependent Personality Disorder ("pervasive psychological dependence on other people.")

Whee! Being a clinical psychologist is fun and easy on the internet!
posted by dersins at 8:57 PM on April 15 [2 favorites has favorites]

Mr jb again:

Yes, dersins, point well taken. I certainly wouldn't want to say that I know anything about this case. I am merely idly speculating based on second-hand reports and nothing I say here should be taken to construe any sort of allegation or diagnosis of any sort. If that wasn't clear enough in my original post, let me reiterate it here: I'm not a doctor, and I don't know this woman or have any knowledge of her case whatsoever and am merely discussing the content of reports which could be wholly wrong for all I know.

Having said all that, and purely for the sake of argument, do you not think that the behaviours described in that article (which could have nothing to do with the real Kari Ferrell and be totally made up) are not consistent with psychopathy?
posted by jb at 9:18 PM on April 15

I'm also suprised this kind of thing or post-sex home invasions don't happen more often with one night stands being more common.

ha - a roommate I had a while back like to show off to his ladyfriends how he could climb the back of the building and break into his own window. Wasn't long before his camera, a bottle of vodka and a carton of smokes mysteriously went missing.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 9:52 PM on April 15 [1 favorite has favorites]

I'm surprised people are so surprised by this. I've run into dozens of people just like this woman in my lifetime. Most of them were a little smarter but not a lot. All of them pulled down money and material goods like you wouldn't believe, at least for a little while.
posted by fshgrl at 10:23 PM on April 15

the times that I met her, she didn't seem manipulative, and I didn't get a "liar liar pants on fire" vibe from her, even though she was saying things that were very obviously false. She just seemed very vulnerable and a little nutty, almost like she believed her own lies

I've also known someone like this. It reminds me of the woman who told everyone that she got out of the Twin Towers right before their collapse.

People think cons will give themselves away and appear slimy and conniving, then are surprised at how earnest and vulnerable they appeared (after they've been conned).

I honestly think these people think that the real world is just virtual reality roll playing game. They adopt these personas and then believe them. So they aren't really lying in their own mind, which is why it is so hard to detect. And they know that most people don't see it as a virtual reality game, so they know how to use this to their advantage and manipulate their reality to fit with and manipulate the people around them.

For Kari Ferrel and the hipsters that meant being easy and vulnerable at the same time.
posted by eye of newt at 11:02 PM on April 15

Man, I bet she's regretting that tatoo.

It's actually an intricate colorform.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:29 PM on April 15

Sister site Jezebel wants you to know...

Farrell is by no means emblematic of Asians, Asian women, women...

Jesus that Jezebel post is racist.

"Did "Hipster Grifter" Play On Loathsome Hipster Asian Fetish?"

Yes, every time a white guy has sex with an Asian it is because of the inherent "loathsome Asian fetish" that is in the DNA of all white men.
posted by afu at 12:01 AM on April 16

Oh, and,"Troy"? From Union Pool four paragraphs down in the Gawker story - its got his figerprints all over it? Yeah, let me tell you some things about the Troy I know...
posted by From Bklyn at 1:33 AM on April 16

no one's mentioned kaycee nicole yet?

argh. I went back and reread the whole thing. MetaFilter used to be so sweet.
posted by sadiehawkinstein at 6:48 AM on April 16

Yes, every time a white guy has sex with an Asian it is because of the inherent "loathsome Asian fetish" that is in the DNA of all white men.

Wow, what's funny is the article doesn't say that at all.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:01 AM on April 16 [1 favorite has favorites]

The latest
posted by katillathehun at 9:13 AM on April 16

Let's give this crazy woman some more attention!
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:27 AM on April 16

Yeah, I don't think "Ignore her and she'll go away" is going to work here.
posted by katillathehun at 9:29 AM on April 16

Gripster?
posted by electroboy at 10:33 AM on April 16

I love this story.. I love wackos.

But here's the thing that's slowly beginning to annoy me about this.. How come in every article about this psycho.. there are all these nice "headshot" style photos.?. as if she really IS a kind of celebrity, which OK; she is, in an infamous way.. but still.. for a psycho-bitch, she sure has a lot of promo material circulating out there!
posted by ChickenringNYC at 11:37 AM on April 16

Part of what makes this story so interesting is that it dramatizes just how much of modern life exists online.
posted by Kattullus at 11:56 AM on April 16 [1 favorite has favorites]

godisdad's top 10 Reasons Why This Story Interests Us:

1. The word 'hipster' appears in the original Observer article


2. The story broke due to her employment at Vice Magazine


3. She's still wanted. This constitutes the play-at-home portion of the story, you could be at Barcade playing Galaga and see her preying on your friend at the bar; at Spoonbill and Sugartown windowshopping, SHE COULD BE ANYWHERE!


4. Her 'victims' are also able to comment on their experiences; extending the echo chamber by about, oh, 100 feet or so


5. That tattoo on her chest is pretty gnar and she is relatively cute


6. It's a story of being schemed young, bourgeois 20/30 somethings (e.g. you) can relate to


7. She's not a real criminal and probably shorter + weaker than you, so if you do find her, you can just throw a pokeball at her and then call the cops


8. There's the sense that this is more ongoing than it actually is, she will flee New York to Philly or stay and this will blow over. That's about it.


9. This is a New York centric story, ripe for the Gawker/MeFi/Vice crowd's obsession


10. It beats looking for a new job online, which is downright depressing

posted by godisdad at 8:55 PM on April 16 [3 favorites has favorites]

Lynchmob
posted by tighttrousers at 10:17 PM on April 16

11. She is said to use phrases like: "I want to give you a hand job with my mouth." while speaking with complete strangers.
posted by R. Mutt at 4:41 AM on April 17 [1 favorite has favorites]

You make a good point, tighttrousers. It is really creepy how random people, who have never met Kari Ferrell, are getting really excercised about the whole thing.
posted by Kattullus at 7:01 AM on April 17

the mental image of a tiny hipster grifter being captured in a poke'ball is just what I needed to get through a day of lettering.
posted by The Whelk at 12:04 PM on April 17

The Hipster Grifter's Charm in Action
Hipster Grifter Kari Ferrell's Victims Speak Out!
Hipster Grifter, Further Unmasked
Hipster Grifter Writes a Well-Wisher: 'Yes, I Have Made Mistakes'

Seems like this story's still taking off.
posted by scalefree at 12:52 PM on April 18

Hipster boys take note: "she attempted to stick her hand down his pants but they were too tight."
posted by The Light Fantastic at 3:38 PM on April 18

At this point, I'm really on her side. Kari Ferrell is simply to big to fail.
posted by R. Mutt at 5:30 PM on April 18 [1 favorite has favorites]

My favorite: the Hipster Grifter bingo card.
posted by incessant at 10:59 AM on April 20 [1 favorite has favorites]

Yes, every time a white guy has sex with an Asian it is because of the inherent "loathsome Asian fetish" that is in the DNA of all white men.

Wow, what's funny is the article doesn't say that at all.

Then why did they title the article "Did "Hipster Grifter" Play On Loathsome Hipster Asian Fetish?" when there is zero evidence that any of theses guys has an asian fetish?

Or is O.K. to automatically assume that when a white man and an asian women there might be some kind of loathsome fetish going on? or is it only ok if the white guy is a hipster?
posted by afu at 12:34 AM on April 21

It's never OK to be a white guy.

Now go and live your life!
posted by chunking express at 7:55 AM on April 21

chunking express: It's never OK to be a white guy.

Louis CK begs to differ.
posted by Kattullus at 9:09 AM on April 21 [1 favorite has favorites]

It's never OK to be a white guy.

That's why I'm European-American.
posted by Pollomacho at 9:13 AM on April 21

My favorite: the Hipster Grifter bingo card.

You're just saying that 'cause of the breasteses.
posted by dersins at 9:30 AM on April 21

Gawker reports that The Hipster Grifter has surrendered to Philadelphia police.

MetaFilter justice... don't mess with it.
posted by Joe Beese at 7:22 AM on May 4 [1 favorite has favorites]

Kari's bust, the real story.
posted by scalefree at 12:04 AM on May 6

Wow, scalefree, that article is fucking terrible.

I think this comment (ironically, from Metafilter's Own™ The Straightener!) says it best:

...I think the tone of this article is smug and self-congratulatory. I think this is a completely sensational story printed solely to attract page views, both with the newspaper’s hope of getting linked by more heavily trafficked media sites in NYC and for Sam to draw attention to his band. I think this piece is braindead, the lowest possible sort of article that seeks to capitalize both on the suffering this girl created and the suffering she will experience in prison. The clear expectation on the paper’s part that I as a reader would want to mindlessly join in the mobs cheering this girl’s frog march into incarceration is unfortunate, and I think is at odds with the paper’s historical stance on the prison system as a cruel and inhumane institution that is unfit for nonviolent offenders. I won’t even get into the clear gender bias involved, where all spurned boys everywhere are invited to high five over the cute chick who took advantage getting her just desserts.

posted by dersins at 12:34 AM on May 6 [1 favorite has favorites]

There are so many things in that comment I disagree with that I would hardly know where to start.

So I'll just say that if she was brought down by a shallow jerk advancing his own interests at other people's expense, that would be poetic justice indeed.
posted by Joe Beese at 7:06 AM on May 6 [1 favorite has favorites]

FreeKari.com
posted by R. Mutt at 1:16 PM on May 6

I'm more than a little disturbed at all the commenters to the City Paper post attacking the guy who turned her in, either calling him a snitch or questioning his motives. I'm just not sure what to make of that.
posted by scalefree at 6:00 PM on May 6

The snitching accusations pretty lame, but I think what the commenters there are reacting to (as well as what I reacted to) is the incredibly self-satisfied tone of the article. Turning a wanted criminal in to the police is a perfectly reasonable (even, arguably, laudable) thing to do. Writing a self-backpatting article about how awesome you are for doing it? Not so much.
posted by dersins at 6:06 PM on May 6

I went to high school with Sam Tremble. I am also in a band in Philly. I'm not sure how much I should say here, but I find this whole episode incredibly hilarious.
posted by ludwig_van at 9:02 AM on May 7

ludwig_van: You wouldn't by any chance know anything about Lyncee June, would you?
posted by scalefree at 9:39 AM on May 7

I'm not sure how much I should say here

Say it. Say it! SAY IT!!!!
posted by dersins at 9:49 AM on May 7

I have never heard of Lyncee June.

dersins, well, I suppose I'll say that this doesn't surprise me, i.e. it seems rather in-character for this bro. Not that I'm in touch with him very much, I just hear what he's up to second-hand and such. Also, playing somewhere in Austin while SXSW takes place is not the same as playing SXSW. And I dare you to listen to his band and tell me how long you can stand it.
posted by ludwig_van at 10:07 AM on May 7 [2 favorites has favorites]

Kari's bust, the real story.

Why do I feel like there is a porn in development with this very name?
posted by Pollomacho at 12:42 PM on May 7

Wow ludwig_van, you weren't kidding.

I made it to the sloppy freakout interlude before closing the tab.
posted by Dr-Baa at 5:37 AM on May 8