With the economy seeming increasingly troubled, it’s no surprise that homelessness is such an issue in countries across the globe. After all, we live in a world in which teachers – highly qualified individuals who we trust to teach our children – are so poorly paid that they are being forced to take second, or even third jobs. In the meantime, house prices are through the roof, leading to fewer people being able to purchase property of their own. As a result, they’re stuck renting from landlords – landlords who seem to hike up the prices to unreasonable levels.

All that is cyclical. If your rent is getting more expensive and your wages aren’t increasing in line with that, you can save less and less. This makes it increasingly unlikely that you will eventually be able to purchase your own home, leaving you at the mercy of landlords. At the same time, your bills, your groceries, everything is getting more expensive – and there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to work enough to keep up.

It’s a horrible truth, and it’s leaving a lot of people really struggling.

So despite their bad public image, it’s important to feel for people who have lost their homes – some of whom find themselves in the situation of having to couch surf, live in their cars, or even sleep on the streets. Because while homeless people are all tarred by the same reputation, it’s important to note that they are absolutely not all the same.

The guy in this story tried to see this when his girlfriend at the time invited two homeless friends to move in with them. Unfortunately for him, however, these weren’t the good guys, and the reason for their homelessness became clearer as the stay went on.

Read on to find out what happened.

Roommate stole my cell phone

My now ex girlfriend was letting some of her homeless friends stay with us for cheap rent.

I woke up one day and my phone was gone. The odd part was, I left it in between both my wallets, and those were there.

I immediately thought it was them but nobody would believe me, saying “You probably just don’t know where you left it!”

So I bring up Find My iPhone on the computer, and it showed nothing – but I left it up just in case.

But there was more context to the missing phone.

I should also mention that the two meth-head roommates were also gone, they said they were going to the mall last night.

So we were all looking around and stuff, and lo and behold, guess what shows up on my map? My phone is magically at the mall!

Now my ex believed me. So we called them, and they said it must have been a break in, but they would look for it.

I also called all the phone shops and mall security in case they tried to sell it.

Then, he got an update from the roommates.

I get a call back later, the roommates said they found it! Some ******* had it, and they beat him up for it! Wow, that’s literally unbelievable.

So I told him that was good, and when I got the phone back I’d be able to plug it in and see who it was that was looking at the phone when it was turned on, thanks to a security app (that doesn’t actually exist).

“Oh, you might see pictures of me doing funny **** in the camera…”

So they get home, and those ******** stole my SIM card. Luckily it’s a CDMA iPhone 4s, so it isn’t really needed. They also tried to reset it, but it just ended up being iCloud locked.

But he wasn’t about to let them get away with it that easily.

I thank them profusely, and just leave the phone on my desk to let them stew. They looked super nervous, so I dragged it out a bit, talking about how I didn’t really feel like checking who it was tonight.

The next morning, I kicked them out, and didn’t give them a refund on that month’s rent.

They went off on us, saying how they helped us and we were horrible people, etc, throwing a fit and denying it, screaming and talking about how they were going to break things.

Enjoy being homeless. They are still living on the street. I still see them sitting on the street from time to time while doing errands.

This really makes you wonder why on Earth his ex girlfriend invited these people to live with them to begin with.

Sure they might be friends, and it’s easy to take sympathy on people you care about, but there also needs to be a certain level of respect involved in sharing a home with people.

And these guys, regardless of what their personal problems were that led to their homelessness, had no respect.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a thrift store worker who is absolutely exhausted by having to thwart theft attempts until after closing.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit said about this.

This person was shocked that he let them stew for as long as he did.

While others thought there was an important lesson to be learned here.

Sure, maybe this guy’s girlfriend did a nice thing by taking in the homeless people. Honestly, it could have been a benevolent thing that would have helped them to turn their lives around. Because sometimes, all people need is a base to call their own and some people who support and believe in them, and with these things behind them they can get back on track.

But other times, things are more complex than that. And while we can all guess about what they were planning to do with the stolen phone – or more likely, the money from it – it’s clear that they need professional support that this former couple were unable to provide. And that’s the sad truth. You can want to help someone all you like, but sometimes you might just not have the capacity to do so.

Unfortunately for the guy in this story, one of the most important things when it comes to a home is that it feels safe. Because if you’re not able to feel safe in your own home, every aspect of your life will take a hit, since you can’t even rest and recuperate from life’s other dramas properly. And since his girlfriend brought some of the biggest dramas in his life into his home, it’s hard to be surprised by their breakup.