March 6, 2024 at 9:42 am

Her Friend Stole Her Belongings After She Moved Out, So She Brought Him to Court To Make Sure She Got Paid

by Matthew Gilligan

Ahhhh, revenge…

It’s such a satisfying phenomenon…especially if you’re looking in from the outside and it has nothing to do with you!

Which brings us to today’s story from Reddit!

Are y’all ready for this?

Get started now!

“Best” friend stole my stuff, so I sought revenge.

“My friend “Dan” and I have known each other since 5th grade (for clarification he’s a gay guy and i’m a woman).

We remained friends into adulthood as we started our lives with our respective partners. I had recently gotten married in 2012, and he got married shortly after. My husband and I then bought a house in early 2015, and Dan and his husband followed behind to also buy (rent) a house.

She had a charge of heart.

However shortly after this I had started to address the feelings I have ignored for many years and came to the realization that I’m a lesbian and needed to leave my husband. For the record my now ex husband is a really great guy and he did not “do this to me” as people in my life have assumed.

His family who I also loved moved in with us in this big house so he was not alone when I left and has always been surrounded by loved ones. He wanted me to be happy and true to myself and he’s found love again so we have no hard feelings.

However at this time I told Dan that I needed to move out on my own, and with them renting this multi-bedroom home that they couldn’t afford, they invited me to move in to one of the rooms and agreed that I could stay a few months free til I get on my feet. I was so thankful and moved in to the room.

Rent’s due…

However a few days later they came to me and asked me if I could start paying for the room right away due to Dan experiencing a medical issue and not able to currently work. I of course obliged as the terms were totally reasonable.

Weeks pass without issue, and I experienced single adult (lesbian) life for the first time because I had been in that relationship since college; that kind of freedom for the first time was so unreal. Shortly after, they decide to rent out another room in their home, low and behold its to another lesbian woman close to my age, I’ll call her A.

She made a new friend.

We both realized we have the exact same birthday (Valentines day) and our pets have the same birthday! We instantly hit it off and became platonic lipstick lesbian partners in crime, going out to the gay bar on the weekends, looking super hot and grabbing the attention of all the cute girls in the gay community.

Not everyone was cool with it…

It was soooo fun I have the best memories. (I know what you’re thinking and and no we have always and only been JUST FRIENDS lol). However this is when Dan started getting jealous, and also angry that the new roommate was not only spending tons of time with me but also being unintentionally careless–such as her leaving an empty wine bottle in his bathroom (he was sober) and bringing people home from the club late at night.

I will admit my wrong in that I was was involved in this once–when Dan expressed he didn’t like it, I no longer participated in bringing people home. However Dan did not know that I had not gone out with her that night nor that the wine bottle didn’t belong to me, so in his eyes we were both at fault for these things and didn’t communicate this to me which would have allowed me to defend myself.

The set up

That’s when things grew tense at the house, I continued paying rent on time every month as any reasonable person would and should (up to this point I had stayed about 3 months).

And then more people showed up…

Then Dan brought in another roommate which was this middle aged woman he knew from work with a teenaged daughter who were staying in the basement, and this lady was a tyrant. I will call her tyrant.

He then brought in ANOTHER roommate E who was staying on the couch and who had planned to take A’s room as she was set to move out soon. Fueled by the crazy lady’s controlling nature, Dan wrote me a note telling me I had to move out within 5 days. I was young and didn’t know my rights or laws or any of that, so I was stressed and didn’t know what to do.

I didn’t have the means to move out all my stuff nor any place to go. A few days later I got a text from Dan saying “hey, [tyrant lady] told me she heard you and A talking and that you think I am required to give you 30 days notice to move out, but that’s not true because there is no lease”.

This was crazy because we literally never talked about that and I hadn’t even looked into my rights so no such conversation ever happened. I assumed since there was no lease I had no standing and had no choice but to get out.

I had told my sister about the predicament I was in, and she told my dad who came to my rescue, showed up at the house with his trailer ready to move my stuff without me even asking. (Can we please just stan my dad for a minute for being my knight in shining armor in a situation where I was embarrassed and afraid to ask for help) Dan had gone out of town during my move out on purpose, but his husband stayed and took this opportunity while his sober husband was gone to get super intoxicated.

He was so s*** faced, but played the “nice guy” card which he always did, offered to help me move stuff out (slurring his words) and he regretted it when I took him up on his offer to bring a box outside for me. I got all the stuff out of the room that the newest roommate E was going to take, but still had a lot of stuff that I couldn’t fit in my car which I put in the garage.

They had just had a garage sale a few weeks earlier, and since I sell new and vintage clothes online I had a ton of merchandise I also put up for sale at the garage sale. A few weeks after the sale, the 2 car garage was still totally full of everyone’s garage sale stuff as though nothing had even sold.

So in an attempt to clear the room in the time they requested, I took the remaining of my personal belongings that I couldn’t fit in my car (including about 1/4th of the clothing that had been hung in my closet) and put it with my garage sale stuff.

I’ll be back for this stuff…

I notified D’s husband that I couldn’t fit everything but put it in the garage and would be back soon the get the rest and he very nicely obliged and said no rush. About a day after I leave, I get text messages of pics of the carpet in the room, which show animal pee stains all over the floor.

They accused my cat of making the stains and were super mad and telling me I was going to pay for this, however I explained to him that I know for a fact when they would enter my room when I would go to work, their cat would go in my room, they’d leave and close the door, and the cat would pee in there because it’s trapped.

I would come home and open my door and their cat would fly out and there’d be a pee puddle in my room and that’s how I knew they were going in my room and that their cat did it.

They did clean up one stain early on when I alerted them but I didn’t bring this up later because they kind of made a big deal of cleaning it up the first time, and I didn’t want to seem like I was spazzing on them and didn’t want to start a bunch of conflict.

There had been a situation earlier where I had just ordered breakfast to go, left it in my room for when I returned back home, and one of them went in my room, left my door opened and their dog went in and pulled my food off my dresser and ate it.

I had gotten annoyed about it because I feel like personal boundaries and privacy is important that people shouldn’t be going in my room all the time, and I was afraid it caused tension. So when their cat peed a second and third time in my room I simply cleaned it up as best as I could and covered it up with a rug because I didn’t want to look at it.

That doesn’t sound right…

But I know for a fact my cat does not have accidents because I’ve had her for a few years now and she’s never done that. He accused me of trying to cover it up with a rug which I flat out admitted that I did because I literally didn’t want to look at it.

I explained that I knew it was their cat that which they didn’t want and were trying to pawn off on people (they bought and got rid of animals the way they spent money–to fill a void), and said that if I had received more than a few days notice to leave I would have been more than happy to wash the carpets.

I even offered to come back the next day and bring my dad’s carpet cleaner but he was not having it. It was at this time that he said I was never welcome at his home again and that our 15 year friendship was over.

Fast forward about a week and I had a day off work to come get the rest of my stuff. I start texting Dan saying Hey is anybody home can I come get my stuff, and start getting ignored and blocked on the different social media accounts. After like four days of this, I decided to just show up at the house with my girlfriend to get my stuff.

Uh oh…

We pull up and the garage is open, but I can clearly see only my stuff is nowhere to be found, and the garage is still full of their untouched stuff from the sale. The only crumb of evidence that I ever lived there was a lone pink hanger on the ground all by it’s lonesome. I go to the front door, ring the door bell, and see the tyrant stick her head around the corner.

I tell her I’m here for my stuff and she says “Call D”, to which I reply “I have and he’s ignoring me”. She slams the door in my face and closes the garage and I go back to my car and call the police. Of course silly me, they use the ol “this is a civil matter” blah blah blah so of course they can’t help me.

At this point I come to the sad realization that my stuff is probably gone. I see D’s car in the driveway with sunroof and windows open so I know he’s home he’s just hiding.

In attempt to cheer me up and seek a bit of (foreshadowed) revenge, my girlfriend takes a half full old frappucino that was in my car (It wasn’t that old it was just hot out at that time and had been sitting there maybe 9 hours from that morning) that was in my cup holder and pours it inside his sunroof and curdled whipped cream and coffee decorate the inside of his car. Remember this is just the foreshadowing.

Revenge main course

I go home defeated, with only the memories of the stuff I left behind, which included a few heirloom clothing items that my grandma had sewn when she was young and passed on to me. I was so depressed and hurt that a few months later I started doing some research.

This was NOT legal.

I look up local tenant laws and realize what he did was totally illegal. In Minnesota, you absolutely are required to give 30 days notice to move out to a tenant as long as the tenant has been paying rent monthly, regardless of if there was a lease or not.

In addition to this, they are required to house my possessions and attempt to return them to me for something like 60-90 days after I move out before getting rid of them. It was clear to me that they were totally wrong in this situation.

Never in a million years would I get rid of or touch somebody’s stuff especially when you give them days to get out. In my mind I would never play around with peoples possessions regardless of what I thought they did to me.

Bingo!

I was angry, but the cherry on top was when I decided to use my gf’s social media to check their fb pages, and low and behold I discover photos of Dan literally wearing multiple items of clothing that belonged to me! But wait… there’s more!!!

I check the social media pages of everyone around them and see pics of the tyrant’s young daughter wearing items that belonged to me. AND THEN I check E’s social media and see her wearing the shirt my little sister gave me for my birthday!! All items I could not fit in my car!!! I was absolutely livid.

It was obvious they went through my stuff, took what they wanted and then got rid of the rest. He made it clear that our friendship was over, and I promised to myself that if I couldn’t recover my friendship, I was at least going to recover my damages. Part of me had still held out hope my stuff would be returned but this hit it home.

I start out by researching the recovery (small claims) process and send official demand letters to return my items which they ignore. I start putting together my case including text messages, pictures, and all the information important to the case.

They ignore all of my letters and eventually I get a court date. I go to court expecting them to argue me and of course they don’t show — the cards are all stacked against them. From illegally kicking me out, to my stuff being gone and proof of them wearing my stuff, it was all there and they had literally no defense.

Show me the money!

I came to court so well prepared, and valued all of my store merchandise at garage sale prices using the Goodwill valuation guide which was well below actual value. The judge saw that I was prepared and more than reasonable and awarded me my entire judgement — around $3,000. One celebration in a long journey.

Months to a year go by without being able to contact Dan as he has blocked me on everything, and I see via social media that they have moved out of that home we were all in (prob to get away from the tyrant who even they admitted was super overbearing).

Eventually I manage to trick D’s husband into answering a hidden ID call where I confront him about my stuff and he declares “You’ll never get us to pay!!” Oh now it was on. Before this I was debating going back and forth on what to do, but after that phone call I knew I wasn’t going to let this go.

All I could think about were the items of clothing my grandma had given me and all my merchandise I had invested in in order to support myself. Pursuing this would be difficult but at the same time I kept going back to my thought of “I’m not going to lose both my friend and my stuff. If the friendship is actually over than I’m definitely getting my stuff back”. The next step is to seek paycheck garnishment since he’s not paying.

I run into a **** end when the documents required to garnish keep getting returned back to the courthouse as undeliverable. Since I had absolutely no clue where they live now, I have no way to initiate garnishment.

This was dragging on and on…

It was the 3rd certified letter that got returned to the court that the court clerk person (not sure of her exact role) calls me and explains since all the previous letters have been returned that she doesn’t want to waste my time and money in court fees by sending this next one out. I explain to her the situation and that I don’t know their address and she sympathizes with me.

I mention that some of the court paperwork/records generated by the county show a nearby city under their names, which I assumed is where they have moved, however I did not have their street address. We hang up and I felt as though this is the end of the line. A few minutes pass and I receive a call back from the court lady.

She tells me she did some digging and was able to find their updated address *somewhere* within their system and she gives it to me!! I’m like “Joan, you sweet sweet angel!”

I had read on the self-help small claims website that court clerks cannot help with any information and I believe this was probably outside of the scope of Joan’s responsibility and probably not at all compliant with the rules of her position.

This woman was literally the saving grace in this situation because without her I would have been stuck at this point.

She got a surprise.

Finally they receive the documents alerting them that I am initiating a request that their paychecks will be garnished soon. All of a sudden… BOOM!! THEY FILE BANKRUPTCY!!!

Since the initial judgement, they continued to rack up credit card debit, bills, shopping, etc. (though in line with their usual financial spending/situation) all with the intention of filing for bankruptcy if and when I find out where they are in attempt to garnish.

Of course this meant I had to do more digging and research into what this meant for my case, this time in bankruptcy court which is not as easy for the average person to navigate without the help of a lawyer the way the small claims system is.

They had mistakenly believed that by filing bankruptcy they would wipe away the debt they owed me, however this applies to things such as being unable to pay your cable bill; they didn’t read the small print where judgements in the case of malicious intent are not included!

I found out that I was going to have to re-file the claim in bankruptcy court in order to fight this judgment but also prove that he took my stuff with malicious intent. Once again I gather my evidence and get ready to debate my claim in court. I file all the necessary paperwork without the help of a lawyer and receive a court date.

Right before the first court date (hearing of creditors) a lawyer calls me on behalf of them trying to intimidate me. He tells me that what actually happened was the landlord/owner of the house showed up and decided to do some spring cleaning.

She allegedly “saw some extra stuff in the garage and donated it” and was willing to testify in court, and therefore I wouldn’t be able to prove malicious intent. He suggests I drop the case, and at this point I was literally shaking. My voice was quaking but I stood my ground and told him that I cannot be fooled.

I have all the proof that they were wearing my stuff and the garage was still full of everything that wasn’t mine, and the lawyer knew this and had a copy of my claim but still tried to bully me down. I had never seen the owner of the house the entire time i lived there, so for her to show up and start touching/moving peoples things the week I move out was not believable to me whatsoever.

I refused to back down, and the meeting of the creditors arrives. I show up in my cutest Legally Blonde lawyer outfit (What, like it’s hard??) and when Dan saw me walk through the doors he looked like he was going to **** himself.

This meeting was not required but I wanted to let him know I was not going to back down. Nothing really happened at the meeting, but I submitted my claim to the bankruptcy court as the next step, not knowing what I would do next but fully intending to research what to do when it gets to that point.

Wouldn’t you know it…?

A week or two passes and I received another call from their lawyer, this time a much different tone. He wants to come to a settlement! He offers 1k to end this. “Ummmm I’ll have to think about it” and I decline the request because I already lowballed the amount of stuff I owed and it’s worth in order to maintain a reasonable case in front of the judge.

Then he offers 1k up front, and $150 payments a month after that for 4 months. let him know the 1k up front all at once was not necessary in my eyes and that its not my intention to put them under undue hardship but he confirmed that was their offer so I accepted. After 4 years I finally won, and knowing they had to accept defeat on their end after promising they weren’t going to pay, it was finally over.

I received the payments with a sorry note included in the last payment. The money didn’t bring back the important items from my grandma, but it came at a time that I was going through a really rough point in my life, experiencing depression and had to take a leave of absence from work (unrelated to this case). That literally helped me keep a roof over my head while I was hurting so it couldn’t have come at a better time.

I managed to do it all on my own without a lawyer and to this day I still miss our friendship so dearly. At the end of the day I think he was acting in hurt because of my new friendship and I do believe looking back that he probably thought everything in the garage was stuff I didn’t care about since it was initially garage sale stuff.

These situations could’ve all been resolved with communication which he could not give me the benefit of. We haven’t communicated after that last letter he included, even though I would gladly patch things up if I had the opportunity. Maybe more justice than revenge, but I got it regardless, and i did it in a pencil skirt.”

Let’s see what Reddit users said about this.

One individual doesn’t think this is a revenge story…