'The look on her face was PRICELESS': Thieving landlord flabbergasted when an ex-tenant lawfully reclaims his property

Author image for Jesse Kessenheimer
Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Mar 24, 2024 7:00 AM EDT

Landlords have a nasty little habit of thinking they own you. As a renter, you're obligated to pay their mortgage and puff up a landlord's retirement fund, but at the end of the day, we owe them nothing but what's written on our lease. No landlord is entitled to claim your property–ever.

The guy in our next story put a stop to landlord thievery by exercising his lawful rights as a tenant (and human person). After enduring some family drama in his personal life and grieving the loss of his father, this young tenant could no longer continue living in his apartment. Although he previously had a decent relationship with his landlord, things went sour when they refused to return a seemingly meaningless piece of equipment to him after moving out. 

Although it may not seem like much to leave behind the router in your old apartment, there's nothing that entitles your landlord to your property–no matter how insignificant it seems. So with his back up against a wall and the police in his corner, this tenacious tenant stood up for himself–and all tenants–by reclaiming what was rightfully his… by force.  

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  • 01
    No. I'm moving to Arizona tomorrow, do you have the Eero wifi router? I will need it today or tomorrow Today 2:55 PM I can come get it too Forget about you router. Oh sorry, no what?
    via canva
  • 02
    Posted by u/mojav3_ Landlord won't give my router back As the title suggests. My family and I moved out yesterday (March 15th) and we wanted to get our Eero router (which is connected to the main WiFi router which was in HER room. She told us we could just come get it another time as she was not available and supposedly she has a lot of boxes covering access to the WiFi router.
    via mojav3_
  • 03
    She now is refusing to give me my router, and is being hostile which she never has been before. What can I do? I'm thinking of just saying I'll get the police involved, but not sure if that would work. I just need my router back..
    via mojav3_
  • 04
    No. Linda I'm moving to Arizona tomorrow, do you have the Eero wifi router? I will need it today or tomorrow Today 2:55 PM I can come get it too Oh sorry, no what? Forget about you router. What do you mean What I said. Done.
    via mojav3_
  • 05
    d_w_a_y_n_e 2 days ago There are good, reasonable things in other comments here. If you want to have a little fun first though, go by the house, log into the router, change the password and change the SSID to "LINDA [LAST NAME] GIVE ME BACK THE ROUTER YOU STOLE!"
    via d_w_a_y_n_e
  • 06
    Posted by u/mojav3_ (UPDATE) police helped me get my router back from my landlord!!! eero CANCEL
    via mojav3_
  • 07
    FAQ and common comments: 1. "Why don't you just knock on her door and take it yourself?" My landlord already was ignoring my texts and calls... I doubted she'd be very receptive to me coming up to her door. Plus, she was being and hostile, I didn't want to deal with that without some sort of help.
    via mojav3_
  • 08
    2. Comments along the lines of: "Log in on the eero app and change the password/shut it off/brick the router/ etc so she loses access" This would be a good suggestion, if my eero were the MAIN router of the wifi system. However, she owns the main
    via mojav3_
  • 09
    modem/router, which my eero was CONNECTED to. If I cut access to my eero through the app, she could just disconnect it and connect to her main modem/router again. That would still be a win for her, and I still wouldn't have my eero back.
    via mojav3_
  • 10
    3. "Why not just get a new router and give it up? It would be cheaper to just get a new one than to spend time and energy on getting the police involved" It's my property, and why should I have to take the financial loss because of my landlord? She was not only refusing to give it back, which
    via mojav3_
  • 11
    and is theft, she was being super disrespectful. In addition, I am in a tough life and financial situation right now, I don't have the extra money to be buying a new mesh WiFi system to replace the one she refused to give back (more on this in the story time)
    via mojav3_
  • 12
    4. "Why did you leave it there in the first place?" My family and I lived at the same address as our landlord, in a sort of duplex type arrangement. My aunt, grandma, and cousin and I lived in the main house, while her and her daughter lived in the back in a separate building. The main WiFi router/model was owned
    via mojav3_
  • 13
    by her in HER building, which was also where my eero router was located and connected to. I have one other eero that was in my family's house which extended the WiFi to our house. Before moving out on the 15th, we asked her if we could come get it, to which she said we could
    via mojav3_
  • 14
    get it another time as she was very busy, and had a ton of boxes blocking access to where the WiFi was (I think she also was moving a lot of stuff around?). We asked another time, to which she again said we could get it later. After we finally moved
    via mojav3_
  • 15
    out, I texted her informing her I would need it back ASAP, (as shown in the original post), which is when she began being hostile. Thus, my family and I tried to get it back prior to moving. We didn't "leave it there", she didn't let us get it back.
    via mojav3_
  • 16
    Alright... story time of how I got my router back in 15 minutes, while my landlord made excuses, insulted me and my family, and complained the whole time... I followed the advice I got from y'all by calling the police on a non-emergency line
    via mojav3_
  • 17
    and asking for a civil . A police officer arrived super quick, in less than 5 minutes, and I described the situation to her (the officer), showed proof of ownership, and proceeded to my landlords part of the house and knocked on the door.
    via mojav3_
  • 18
    The look on her face when she opened the door was PRICELESS. She was clearly in disbelief that I had brought the police, and all she could say was "come in" with disbelief on her face. I expressed how I didn't want to do this.. but I had no other
    via mojav3_
  • 19
    choice. She began complaining to me and the officer that she worked all day and only just got home, was just so tired, and that the reason she stopped answering my texts because she just "didn't want to have to deal with moving all those boxes".
    via mojav3_
  • 20
    Now, I won't lie, there was a TON of stuff blocking access to where my eero was. But I told her I could handle it all myself... I'm a 22 year old man, and I'm more than capable of moving all that stuff on my own and handling all the hard work. She didn't
    via mojav3_
  • 21
    have to move a finger, and her "not wanting to have to deal with all that" was just a bad excuse to refusing to return my property... again, she didn't have to "deal" with any of it. I COULD DO IT... still no excuse for denying my property and being so in the first place.
    via mojav3_
  • 22
    I then began moving all the boxes and stuff in the way gradually, and promised to be very careful and put every single thing back where it started.
    via mojav3_
  • 23
    As I went about this process, she began her complaining, additional excuses, and insults at me and my family.. I didn't want to argue with her, but all her comments were such utter BS I found myself not being able to help but responding.
    via mojav3_
  • 24
    She started saying how ever since I installed my eero the WiFi bill skyrocketed - which is laughable. All my Eero system is is a mesh WiFi system, in essence, just a wifi extender... if her WiFi bill really did increase, then her ISP increased her price, per her contract...
    via mojav3_
  • 25
    she was also saying how now she was going to have no WiFi, which again makes no sense, as she owns the main Wifi router/modem... which again I explained she wouldn't lose her WiFi... once again a terrible excuse for her actions and behavior.
    via mojav3_
  • 26
    She then started claiming my aunt never paid this months half of the utility bill (which is not true), to which I responded that we'd be happy to pay any owed money... but if we owed her why hadn't she communicated that to us? How is that our problem if she didn't want to tell us any of these concerns or complaints she had? Still no excuse for theft and her behavior.
    via mojav3_
  • 27
    After this was when I really got so angry that I almost cried. I'll preface this by saying my dad passed away from pancreatic cancer about a month and a half ago, and the reason I'm moving to AZ Is because my mom wanted everyone who lived in the house that my aunt, grandma, and cousin and I rented to move in with her because since my dad dying, she would be completely alone and would need support.
    via mojav3_
  • 28
    The thing is there's no space for me there, since the 15th we've all been stuffed in one room. As a 22 y/o man with a cat with high maintenance due to illness, I need my space to be able to operate and just live. It's too much to get into in this post.. Now, as I continued to move things to get to my router, she started saying things along the lines of...
    via mojav3_
  • 29
    "I know you're suffering and must be going through a lot now because of your dad, but you're going to look back on this and realize how ridiculous what you are doing right now is.."
    via mojav3_
  • 30
    idea what my dad I had no dying had to do with this situation. I still don't know if she was attributing me grieving and going through a lot to me lashing out at her possibly? I don't get how my dad could have anything to do with this. I just wanted my router back.
    via mojav3_
  • 31
    But her commenting on this and bringing up my father made me so angry. I had JUST gotten back from my fathers memorial 2 hours prior to this situation... I said something along the lines of "you have no right to mention my dad or comment on my family, that has nothing to do with this."
    via mojav3_
  • 32
    She responded something like "well why all this over a router? It seems ridiculous why not just buy a new one" This also pushed me over the edge; and I blew up on her telling her how I had to leave my job because of needing to move, no longer had any income, had
    via mojav3_
  • 33
    to pay my student loans still, had a sick cat to take care of, had no where to live for now, and didn't have the money to buy another Eero which maybe to HER wasn't much money, but to me it matters when you don't have the money to spare.
    via mojav3_
  • 34
    I finally made it to the router, disconnected it, and took a picture of HER modem and router to prove that she still had WiFi connection, and put everything back exactly where it was.
    via mojav3_
  • 35
    She tried one more time to make some complaint that one of her cabinets was tilting and about to collapse because of all the moving I did - to which the police officer herself chimed in and said "well you did say that that cabinet was old and about collapse in the first place before he even started moving anything..."
    via mojav3_
  • 36
    Once again I had nothing to do with her old cabinet... even the police backed me up there. As I started to leave, I started telling her again how I didn't want to do this...
    via mojav3_
  • 37
    and I didn't understand why it had to come to this. Prior to this we always had a good relationship... I even took care of her cats for a month or so in the past and informed her that her cat seemed to have asthma and gave her advice on what to do...
    via mojav3_
  • 38
    But once again she just proceeded to make excuses, saying again how she just didn't want to deal with all those boxes, which bothers me so much, because she didn't have to DO ANYTHING.... I did all the work and put everything back for her.
    via mojav3_
  • 39
    I was in and out of there in 15 minutes. If she had just accepted my offer in the first place where I said I would come and get it, this could have been avoided. But no, she had to resort to being and disrespectful and refuse me my property in the first place. Anyway after that I left. Felt awesome tbh to have won. Landlords think they can do wherever they want. It's sick
    via mojav3_
  • 40
    ctsforthewin 10 hr. ago The whole, "I want this item that belongs to you, so you should just go get another one" thing is wild Glad you got your property back.
    via ctsforthewin
  • 41
    mojav3_OP 10 hr. ago Literally insane how she refused to acknowledge how she was just... wrong. It belonged to me, she has no right to decide I can't come get it.
    via mojav3_
  • 42
    sillyhaha 8 hr. ago I'm so sorry about your dad. You're going through a really rough time. This was the last thing you needed. I'm so glad the police were fast and helpful. I'm sorry you had to listen to your ex LLs Good luck in the days to come.
    via sillyhaha

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