Reddit Gobsmacked By Tale Of Landlord Using Tenant's Apartment As Airbnb While He Was On Vacation, Resulting In Robbery

A week ago, a Redditor dropped a doozy of a landlord horror story in the /r/legaladvice subreddit, claiming his landlord rented out his apartment as an Airbnb while he was on vacation and the unwanted visitors stole valuables including a PlayStation, a PC and a gun from his apartment.

The Reddit user rickky1000 claims that upon returning to his apartment from a two-month vacation, he discovered several of his personal belongings were stolen. However, there was no sign of forced entry, leading him to discover that his landlord had used his apartment as an Airbnb while he was away. Rickky1000 additionally said he was still paying rent while he was away.

The post gained a whopping 17,000 points in /r/legaladvice over the last seven days, with Rickky1000 turning to the subreddit to ask what he should do since the landlord is refusing liability and says he should file a renter's insurance claim.

Commenters there advised him that he was well within his rights to sue his landlord and should still go through with the renter's insurance claim, but the story went viral outside or /r/legaldrama because of the landlord's brazen behavior.
It was subsequently reposted to shock and awe on Reddit's /r/TwoHotTakes and Twitter, earned a writeup on Cheezburger and also became a prominent subject for TikTok videos.

In an interesting coincidence, just four days before rickky1000's post, TikToker lawbymike posted a sketch about the exact issue the Redditor would find himself in, gaining over 949,000 views in a week. In another coincidence, Rickky1000, who has been active on Reddit for two weeks, says his apartment is in California, where lawbymike (real name Michael Mandell) practices.

We reached out to @lawbymike as well as Rickky1000 asking about a potential connection but have not received a reply at this time. We will update this story later if we do.