Bad roommate stories are a dime a dozen, but the worst are when roommates steal. Redditor u/Charming_Donut_3669 posted on the r/AmIOverreacting subreddit after discovering that their roommate has been stealing their rent money for several months instead of paying their landlord.
“AIO – roommate has been secretly pocketing my rent money for the last few months. Confronting him after the landlord came by,” OP wrote in the title.
“Long story short, my roommate Chad has never really given me reason to distrust him, he’s always gone, traveling here and there, like Europe, china, etc. He met this girl on WoW and they’re always traveling. I don’t care. Not my business.”
It suddenly became their business when the landlord stopped by to confront u/Charming_Donut_3669 and Chad about the missing rent payments.
“Our landlord and her son came by today which is super rare, I’ve literally met them twice and have not seen them since. Apparently Chad hasn’t been paying ANY rent towards our house for months and has been hiding the notices in his desk… the only reason I went in to [his] room to check is because the landlord showed me copies, proof of notices so I needed to get validation and see what the fuck is up.”
“Half of his shit is gone too. Idk how I didn’t notice any of this, my excuse is that I’ve been really really focused on getting a new job after being furloughed and dealing with a death in the family so I too have been traveling a lot. This all just adds a layer of frosting on my already existing shit cake.”
“The landlord wasn’t mean or vindictive. They appear to want to work with me but because of Chad, but I don’t know how that’s going to be possible without a new job TODAY,” they wrote, adding, “I’m going to have an eviction on record, potentially become homeless and be f*cked forever because of this piece of sh*t. Should I send the text I have drafted? What should I write ???”
They shared screenshots of a text conversation with Chad, in which the disappearing-act roommate showed no remorse and didn’t acknowledge that he had been stealing the rent money for the last three months.
In the comments, Redditors were livid for OP and offered suggestions of how to proceed, including going to small claims court with the help of their landlord.
“He said ‘don’t hate me hate the system I grew up poor’ in response to you asking ‘your pocketing my rent money?’ Wow,” u/d_chong commented. OP replied to them saying, “Yeh, the mental gymnastics is a mindf*ck here.”
“Say to him ‘you need to send the money for the 3 months rent to me immediately. Send the screenshot of the transfer when it is complete,’” u/jubileee08 recommended. “Then file a police report. Don’t tell him you’re calling and don’t call the police until you have him admit it, or if you can find a way to prove he stole your money.”
u/2HalloweenCakes agreed with u/jubileee08 and added, “This. OP, DO NOT let him think you’re going to the police until he either admits to it or makes it clear he’s not admitting to anything. The second you say police, your chances at a confession are gone, and while I assume you can still prove payments to him via bank records or whatnot, it’ll be a lot easier (and cheaper in legal fees) if you can get a confession.”
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