He Spent His Entire Tenancy Living in Fear of His Landlord—So on Move-Out Day, He Left Behind an Unbearable Smell
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When you’re looking for a place to rent, it’s important to do a little research. Not only do you want to make sure you like the place, but you also want to make sure if seems safe and the landlord isn’t a slumlord.
It’s not always possible to know these things before moving in, but as the person who wrote this story found out, a quick Google search can tell you a lot about a landlord. If only he had Googled his landlord before moving in, he could’ve avoided this whole situation!
Instead, he found himself terrified and hiding in the room he rented out. Now, he’s wondering if he went too far with his revenge.
Keep reading for all the details.
AITA for ruining my landlord’s room-rental business?
I recently arrived in Cúcuta, Colombia, and rented a room from a guy named Pablo.
I visited the house, checked the room, got a receipt, and paid rent plus a deposit.
Everything seemed fine.
The only mistake I made was not Googling him.
Yikes! This would be alarming!
On moving day, Pablo was mysteriously absent.
A few hours later, five armed people on motorcycles showed up asking for him.
When I contacted Pablo, he admitted he owed them money and said he would send a “commission” to deal with the situation.
That was when I started imagining myself caught in a shootout between criminal gangs.
He’s really scared.
I turned off the lights, hid under my desk, and messaged my lawyer cousin with my location and Pablo’s details, just in case.
The men eventually left, but the next morning my housemate explained that they were pagadiario debt collectors who had been showing up for weeks. They had even demanded $100 from him just to let him leave the house!
I Googled Pablo and found complaints accusing him of scams in several countries.
Apparently, he had a habit of sending people AI-looking photos of himself in intensive care whenever he needed an excuse to disappear.
He needed to get out of there.
Meanwhile, I was practically imprisoned in my bedroom, too scared to use the bathroom or even go out for water.
At one point, I was relieving myself in a five-liter bottle.
I eventually found another room through my cousin.
After several days of waiting for the collectors to leave, I finally escaped. Pablo never returned my money, of course.
Time for revenge.
But before leaving, I looked at the bottle containing about three liters of accumulated waste and had an idea.
I poured half of it over Pablo’s mattress, pillows, and upholstered headboard. I poured the rest over my own mattress and headboard, turned the fan on full blast, and even broke the key inside my bedroom lock to make things harder for him.
My reasoning was simple: if Pablo kept renting those rooms, someone else might end up in the same nightmare. At least now he would have to replace the mattresses before scamming another tenant.
OP lied to a former housemate.
Later, my former housemate called, terrified by the smell and convinced something terrible had happened.
I told him Pablo had mentioned that his ex-girlfriend had visited, so perhaps she had wet his bed out of revenge.
He seemed reassured. Then he blocked me.
Fair enough. I blocked him too.
OP is conflicted about what he did.
I lost my rental money, but at least I got out safely.
Still, I wonder whether I went too far.
Pablo scammed me, put me in danger, and effectively kept me trapped for days. But I deliberately damaged two mattresses, and my actions could affect his rental business.
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So, AITA for ruining the mattresses to make it harder for my landlord to scam future tenants?
He was terrified for days! Living there sounds dangerous. His revenge was his way of preventing someone else from moving in.
But did he go too far?
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
This person shares the real lesson of the story.
Another person thinks OP sounds selfish.
Another person is thinking about the roommate.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a neighbor who keeps reporting a neighbor who is constantly parking in the handicapped spots.
This person thinks OP is digusting.
That was some pretty gross revenge.
What I don’t get is that there’s another roommate. If OP was so terrified, was the other guy terrified too, or is he just living there thinking nothing’s wrong?
He can’t take back what the did, but he shouldn’t do it again.
A quick Google search would’ve prevented this whole ordeal.
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