DALLAS, Ore. - A man facing serious charges in connection with a Craiglist posting that advertised a baby for sale says it was all just a hoax and he never dreamed it would lead to him facing felony charges.

"Well, it was a hoax that got sorely out of hand and I apologize for what happened," Patrick Ryan told KATU News on Thursday. 

The ad, which offered a baby for sale for $1,000, showed up on Craigslist Tuesday morning and was promptly removed when someone reported it to police.

According to a Probable Cause Affidavit for Ryan's arrest, he told a detective he "put it there because he was tired of people complaining about stupid things on the Internet."

He also told police that the e-mail address he included on the posting belonged to a woman he used to work for at Oregon State University.  She lives in Lebanon and police said she had nothing to do with the posting.

Craigslist's CEO, Jim Buckmaster, told KATU News the company has measures designed to keep hoaxes from making it onto the site but in this case the posting slipped through.

"It's impossible to catch everything," he said.

Ryan said there never was a baby in danger - he had simply pulled the photo off the Internet.  He said he never dreamed it would land him in so much trouble.

"That surprised me," he said.  "It was a picture off Google and just a horrible misjudgment on my behalf."