Couple win $56m after eBay sent dead pig and live cockroaches in post in months of harassment with ‘creepy deliveries’

EBAY bosses were accused of sending a pig foetus, live cockroaches and maggots to a journalist couple’s home – before they won a staggering £42million settlement. Ina and David Steiner were subjected to a horrific campaign of harassment after their reporting on eBay angered senior executives at the online giant. Ina and David Steiner were subjected to a horrific campaign of harassment from eBay bosses Credit: Reuters A bloody pig mask was among one of the horrid deliveries Credit: CBS The couple were followed, threatened and bombarded with a macabre stream of packages at their Massachusetts home. Among the chilling deliveries was a pig foetus, followed by a box of live cockroaches and maggots. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! Then came a book about surviving the death of a spouse and a funeral wreath in a sinister apparent warning. Their neighbours were even sent pornographic magazines featuring “barely legal” teenage girls, addressed to David. The terrifying ordeal began in 2019 while the couple were holding a yard sale at their home in Natick. Someone suddenly drove up, graffitied their fence, walked through their garden and disappeared. Ina, 64, said: It was really creepy. We had no idea what that was about.” Two months later, the vicious campaign escalated when Ina began receiving threatening, expletive-laden messages from an anonymous Twitter account. Most read in The Sun The messages allegedly came from someone claiming to be a disgruntled eBay seller furious over her reporting of the company. Then the harassment spiralled into a relentless onslaught of phonecalls. The pair were sent countless spam emails and even online adverts for sex parties at their own address. One advert allegedly invited strangers to “knock at any hour”. The pair were sent countless spam emails and even online adverts for sex parties at their own address Credit: Getty The couple also received a book about death Credit: CBS The Steiners were left terrified that the person behind the campaign could be someone they knew. Ina said: “What made it terrifying is we didn’t know who it was, and there was no way to find out.” But a photograph taken by David by a car he believed had been following him finally blew the sinister operation wide open. Police traced its number plate to an eBay employee. The trail eventually led to the company’s internal security team, with seven eBay employees later pleading guilty to criminal charges linked to the attacks. Now, seven years after the nightmare began, eBay and three former executives have agreed to pay $56million (£42million) to settle the Steiners’ claims. The couple will receive $46.15million, while eBay will pay $6million to charity. Former chief executive Devin Wenig and two former colleagues will pay the Steiners $2.55million. Wenig will also pay $1million to a charity dedicated to protecting freedom of speech, in Ina’s name. eBay issued an apology, saying: “as we have long stated, what the Steiners were subjected to by former eBay employees in 2019 was wrong, reprehensible and should never have happened”. The shocking campaign was allegedly sparked by Ina’s reporting on the company and its then-chief executive Wenig. According to court documents, Wenig sent communications chief Steve Wymer a message ordering him to “take her down” after Ina wrote about eBay spending heavily on a bar at its campus. Jim Baugh (pictured) allegedly stalked the couple Credit: Getty The couple will receive $46.15million, while eBay will pay $6million to charity Credit: Reuters “We are going to crush this lady,” Wymer replied, according to court documents. Wymer allegedly passed the instruction to Jim Baugh, eBay’s head of security. Court records say Wymer branded Ina a “biased troll who needs to be BURNED DOWN” and declared: “I want to see ashes. As long as it takes. Whatever it takes”. Baugh allegedly told members of his security team that he had “top cover” – protection from higher-ups – for whatever he needed to do. He then allegedly dispatched employees to stalk and torment the Steiners. One employee allegedly sent the threatening messages and packages, while Baugh travelled to Natick with Veronica Zea to stalk the couple in person. It was Zea’s rental car that provided the crucial clue after David photographed it. Police traced the vehicle to her rental agreement, while gift cards used to buy the threatening packages were traced to a supermarket near eBay’s offices. Baugh and six other eBay employees were arrested and charged in 2020. Wenig, Wymer and Wendy Jones, another former executive, deny encouraging employees to commit criminal acts. Wenig has said his “take her down” message was intended to inform a PR strategy rather than encourage criminal behaviour. He left eBay in 2019 with a severance package worth nearly $60million (£44.5million). Wenig told The Sunday Times he was “saddened” by what the Steiners had suffered and said it had been “deliberately done in secret and without my knowledge”. He added that “protection of the press and the right to free speech are causes I have long supported and defended”. For the Steiners, the eye-watering settlement marks the end of a seven-year fight for justice and public accountability. The couple had been determined to make the outcome public rather than allow the case to disappear behind a confidential deal. “I don’t think we could live with ourselves, with the rest of our lives, knowing that we didn’t do as much as we could to be transparent, to make this behaviour transparent,” David, 67, said. “So that really was never an option.” Ina added: “As victims, we wanted to try to do everything we could to ensure this never happened to anybody else.” Their lawyer Chris Murphy said the couple wanted to “protect the First Amendment, protect free speech”. Speaking from their home in Natick, the couple said they were relieved but still absorbing the extraordinary outcome. “I just need a nap,” David said. The Steiners met at university and launched EcommerceBytes in 1999, as online selling began its meteoric rise. Their publication eventually attracted around 650,000 unique monthly visitors and became essential reading for eBay sellers, analysts and industry insiders. But their reporting on the company’s troubles eventually thrust the couple into a corporate maelstrom that would consume years of their lives. “Yes, we have got a significant amount of money, for which we are so grateful,” Ina said. “But I would not recommend this as a way to generate revenue. It was the most horrendous experience of our lives.” The Sun has reached out to eBay for comment. Comment now