Fired Up
After my college graduation, one of my roommates was planning to spend the fall/winter studying abroad, so we found a replacement roommate for the semester. C was a graduate student and seemed mature and pleasant enough. He moved in and kept a very neat room. Problems began small, from not putting away dishes in a timely manner to parking his bicycle in the dining room because the covered porches were too outdoorsy for it. He was irritated when we used any method other than face-to-face conversation to communicate. So we had to arrange times to meet and talk instead of sending emails. We first began considering kicking him out the day he decided to do laundry late at night in the late fall. It was obvious the washer was right next to S’ and my room. We woke up, but C was nowhere to be found, so we stopped the washer, left an explanatory note and went back to sleep. He returned the next day to find the note and he left a scrawled note saying he would be moving out immediately. Once he calmed down we had a house meeting, he apologized and we decided as long as everyone was respectful from then on, he could stay.
Things went far downhill from there. In addition to the increasing cigar smoking, we began smelling weed that he was smoking in his room. Asking him to stop didn’t work. In November, we split the cost of a season’s supply of firewood for our fireplace. When we returned from our three day Thanksgiving break, we found he had burned a quarter of the firewood in our absence. His demeanor changed during that time as he stayed high regularly and stopped cleaning up after himself. He would strip and wax his snowboard on the kitchen counter for hours and then claim he had no time to clean up the mess. He would start fires in the fireplace and then leave the house. The worst event happened the weekend before Christmas when everyone except C went out of town. The house was left neat and clean. I returned four days later to find utter destruction. Furniture and cushions were thrown around, food was on the counters, everything was coated in ash, game consoles yanked from beneath the TV and there were chunks of wood everywhere.
As I stood speechless, he stepped out, appalled that I had returned before Christmas and had caught him in the act. He said him and his friend had gotten drunk and were having fun and “things got out of hand,” but since he was willing to eventually vacuum, there should be “no hard feelings.” I then realized the pantry was empty. I found the contents of the pantry burned in our fireplace. In addition, he had thrown our toilet paper, baking supplies and cleaning supplies in and around the fireplace. One of these items exploded and had thrown a coating of ash and embers on our entire living room and kitchen. I found shredded plastic, burned food and cans and glass melted into the carpet. Holes had been melted in our furniture, wall decorations were smashed and a door frame ripped out of the wall. After a short yelling match, he understood he had to move out that day. He attempted to replace our damaged property by buying us bags full of chickpeas, kidney beans, potatoes and toilet paper. We left it up to the landlord to press charges. Thousands of dollars in damage were done to our apartment and property. It took three months of work to repair the apartment. The carpet and linoleum were replaced, walls repainted and entire fireplace replaced due to the explosion cracking the bricks and tile in half. None of us have seen or heard from him since that day and could not be more thankful for his disappearance.
Oh. My. God.
I think Troia’s pretty much said everything that needs to be said.
I bet he’s going to Darwin Awards himself one day.
He and his friend must have been on something insane, not just “too much to drink”. Woah, when does that kind of shit ever sound like a good idea?
This dude was using much more than pot!
all i can think is “dammmnnn”
sorry i blew up your everything please have a chickpea
At first, I was kind of “meh” with the stopping the washing machine and everything, but by the end of this story, I was amazed. For some reason, the part about the explosion cracking the bricks in the fireplace is hilarious to me. And he burned all the food and pulled down a door! It’s like he was a Sasquatch on a rampage. I cannot stop laughing.
“He attempted to replace our damaged property by buying us bags full of chickpeas, kidney beans, potatoes and toilet paper.”
How thoughtful!
Again it’s amazing how someone can just transform from a relatively normal seeming person into the human version of an overflowed toilet within a few months.
This is one of the best stories in a while….I assume the OP and his other roommates had to assume the cost of the repairs above the amount of the crazy dude’s damage deposit. That had to have burned. (no pun intended)
I hope the damage was paid for by that asshole and not by you guys! My parents had to replace all of the fireplaces in our house when we first moved into it years ago, so I know that stuff’s pretty damn expensive! I’ve never understood how anyone could think property damage = justified revenge on their roommates (it’s the landlord’s place, not theirs!). I’m glad you guys were able to get rid of that idiot!
The house rules seemed, to me, way too strict. I’m very much for “law and order” and I have a very low tolerance for nonsense. But it seems the OP had ZERO tolerance. You can’t live that way with someone.
For example, they threatened to kick out the dork for ONE time he ran the washing machine at night? WTF? If it was a habit of his, I would’ve confronted him about it. But push the “nuke” button the very first time? Chillax.
I can understand (not excuse) what prompted this dork to lash out the way he did. I don’t see it created in a vacuum. He was lashing out at his martinet room-mates.
Drugs are bad, mmmmmkay? Methamphetamine’s bad, really bad, mmmmkay?
Thank god none of you had any pets.
Jchief: They didn’t threaten to kick him out over the washing machine. The roommate got all Gloria Swanson and threatened to move out because he got a note asking him not to run the washer late at night.
And agreed that something much stronger than booze and pot was involved in the holiday rampage.
@JChief: it wasn’t that they threatened to kick him out, he overreacted and left a note basically saying “screw you guys i’m going home” for not being able to run the washing machine when people are trying to sleep in the room right next to it
First off: the bad roommate really was bad… but more so, do you know what it seemed like to me? This seemed like a classic case of the original two roommates considered the house as theirs and despite the fact that the third roommate paid an equal share, they obviously considered him a guest and probably made no secret of their feelings either. I bet they wouldn’t even know why that kind of attitude is bad, either.
Now, the third roommate was a total dick, but I agree with Jchief, he wasn’t the only dick in that house…
There’s being a dick, and then there’s being a mega-dick. I think the roommate falls into the second category. Frankly I don’t know how the OP resisted the urge to turn this guys face into hamburger. There is no way that kind of damage results from getting drunk and having things get “out of hand”. A little damage maybe, but it sounds like while the OP and the other roommate were gone a Michael Bay movie happened in the apartment. Good riddance to bad rubbish, although I feel sorry if anybody else has to live with that walking disaster.
lol when I read this I thought even Ted can’t whine and moan about this story. @JChief I think they considered throwing him out not because he ran the washing machine at night but because he reacted like a spoilt 5 year old when they politely asked him not to. There’s nothing to suggest in the story that the original house mates treated him as a guest. They seemed to have nothing but reasonable expectations – clear up your own stuff don’t burn ours on the fire.
I…I am so stunned by this. When I drink heavily I’m like “I think I shall sit in this chair and watch twelve movies and giggle inanely. Maybe some guitar hero.” Not “I AM GOING TO SHATTER THE HOUSE.”
What a crazy guy.
And…yeah, they said “yo, can we not run the washer late at night please? Loud” and he said “OMFG SCREW YOU GUYS I AM MOVING OUT” and they were like “lolwut? Uh. Okay, go ahead.”
As the OP, I figured I could clear up a couple of things.
The washing machine thing should have been a non-event for everyone, but we returned from work the next day to find a creepy scrawled note taped to a bedroom door. In it, he stated he was going to move out because of what we did. He later said this was an overreaction – and we think he was on some sort of pills at the time. The overreaction is what caused us to start thinking about kicking him out, because we were afraid of his behavior and what else could potentially happen. We definitely were not setting unreasonable rules — I’ve lived with quite a few roommates over the years and have gotten along with everyone else I’ve lived with.
Things improved for a little while after we all talked about the overreaction. I only recently learned that he was into different drugs/pills while we lived with him. We do not know if they were prescription, but they definitely resulted in erratic behavior, and ultimately, a lot of property damage.
As far as money goes, he moved out and completely disappeared the same day I came back to discover the damage. No one knew where he went and couldn’t contact him. The landlord (a very sweet lady) was stuck with the bills. We didn’t have renter’s insurance, but fortunately did not lose a lot of money over the incident. I don’t know if the landlord ever pressed charges or what happened financially.
Jesus H. Christ….
@Ted
I am sorry, but I have moved in to places with people who have already lived there, and yeah, it feels more like their place than mine, but that doesn’t excuse any kind of destructive behavior. When you move into a place where people are living peacefully, you kind of need to work with their house rules and etiquette. If you want to be in charge of somewhere, move in first. How does that even start to indicate the OP as an instigator?
eeek! he sounds a lot like a drugged out idiot who trashed OUR apartment one night while we were out celebrating a birthday…hundreds of dollars of damage which we had to pay for because the bastard fucked off somewhere. I sympathize…sometimes you just never know. I mean pot smoking, ok but real druggies, they belong in detox with lindsay lohan or on INTERVENTION!
@Parpar – It doesn’t make the OP responsible, the guy was CRAZY… BUT take a crazy person and then let them feel a little bit slighted, (like accidentally inferring that they aren’t as important in the house) and ka-boom… just saying…
@ Ted – Unstable people are still responsible for their actions. You can plead insanity and everyone nods along, but in the end they did something shitty.
The roommates are not responsible for the unstable roommate’s actions, especially when they were calm and reasonable.
Yeah… that’s what I said…
PCP is a hell of a drug.
dear god.
“sorry i blew up your everything please have a chickpea.”
Heh heh heh.
Seriously – was that dude mainlining Drano or what?