Screwed up big time. Need . Read before judging.

[sanelib]

Alright so, long story short. I moved into a place a couple of months ago with other people. During the 2nd month i was missing a lot of food from my fridge. My housemates were also missing a lot of stuff. Most of these items were: Nutella, Lactose Free Milk, juices etc.

 

I took the initiative and brought a mini fridge for my room and stored my stuff in them. Since the fridge was small, it couldn't fit big items so i resort to keeping them in the house fridge. But the stuff i kept in the common house fridge kept on escalating.

 

Another chinese housemate confronted me if i ever took his stuff, and i pretty much assured him that i did not. During this time the landlords were informed. They don't speak english and only resort to speaking chinese. I told my chinese housemate about our impending problem and told asked him to tell out landlord about stuff getting stolen. Also, the reason why i brought the fridge to which he conveyed to the landlord. The landlord ended up coming into my room and inspected the fridge and said that i would need to pay an additional 10$ per week to keep it or move it to the kitchen.

 

Now, i couldn't risk letting the fridge go to the kitchen and ended up paying, reason because i didn't want to get my stuff stolen from the common fridge. I pretty much resented the fact that this chinese housemate told the landlord (despite me telling him to). I held this resentment against him from that day onwards, since i couldn't afford to pay $40 extra per month on top of my rent.

 

Stuff kept continued to get stolen, some of my lactose free milk this past month. I still couldn't afford to keep the fridge in my room. So i devised a plan where i took my Chinese housemates yoghurt, opened it and threw it in the bin, but left the container on my desk since i had to rush for an exam (i am lactose intolerant so i cannot have milk products).

 

My intention was he would notice the missing yoghurt and ask me. I would then tell him to speak to our Chinese landlord (since i can't speak to them in english) to shift the fridge to the kitchen so that a couple of other housemates, him and I would use it. Instead of paying 40$. He did confront me about the missing yoghurt and entered my room and noticed the container on my table.

 

His assumption is that i stole it, but i was generating an opportunity to get him to share the fridge so that i don't pay the $40. Now, i explained the entire situation to him and he assumes that i stole all his stuff and says i am fooling him to get out of it. Now, i cannot eat yoghurt because i am lactose intolerant, but there was other stuff being stolen which wasn't milk based in the past.

 

He is threatening to tell the landlord, and i am fearing that everyone in the house is going to blame me for stealing. Plus my landlords don't speak English and there is a problem here as well. I don't want to get evicted, this is a ****ed up situation. How the hell do i handle this?

[applej4]

Why do your keep mentioning that the roommate is Chinese, landlord is Chinese....throughout your post? What difference does it make if they are Chinese, Lithuanian, or Swedish? What are YOU - Cuban? Ethopian? And what's the relevance?

Edited June 2, 2015 by applej4

[sanelib]

Why do your keep mentioning that the roommate is Chinese, landlord is Chinese....throughout your post? What difference does it make if they are Chinese, Lithuanian, or Swedish? What are YOU - Cuban? Ethopian? And what's the relevance?

 

Explaining this situation to the landlord is going to be complex because they don't speak English and i rely on this Chinese housemate to translate whatever i say.

[d0nnivain]

You did in essence steal your roommate's yogurt. Pay him back or replace it.

 

Can you move?

 

If you can't, I'd invest in a spyware cam that you can point at the fridge to see who is stealing the stuff.

[O'Malley]

How many roommates are there? I think privately installing a spy camera on the refrigerator might have worked, but it sounds like this situation has been screwed up irrevocably. Stealing the yogurt for what ever reason was an extremely stupid move. Even if you find out who is stealing the food, your behavior probably will continue to discredit you with the roommate you stole from and your landlord.

 

Your issue with your personal refrigerator is with your landlord and while his demand that you pay extra might seem ridiculous, depending on whether he pays your utilities, the terms of your contract and where you live, it may be perfectly legal for him to charge you. Your best bet is looking for a better place to live, read the contract well before signing.