Many landlords have been accused of questionable behavior, but one property owner in Iowa allegedly took things to another level when he threw away a tenant’s furniture without permission.
The renter, who posts on Reddit under the username Lemonadeandfireflies, shared her frustration on r/mildlyinfuriating, explaining that her landlord had allegedly taken her outdoor couch while she was out of town. “He told me it was ugly,” she recalled. Her teenage daughter later found the missing couch in a garbage pit used by the landlord. As if that weren’t enough, OP said she and the property owner had not exactly been on great terms to begin with. “He also told me my camper is a piece of crap,” she added, noting that she lives in a campground in a rural area.
The especially ironic part was that the tenant had left out a pile of items she actually intended to haul to a proper dump later—not to the landlord’s makeshift landfill, which he had apparently created out of a large hole in the woods. “He took a legit piece of furniture instead of the actual trash,” Lemonadeandfireflies wrote. “I didn’t ask him to get rid of it, and he never contacted me or asked permission,” she added.
Redditors Sided With the Tenant and Accused the Landlord of Illegal Dumping
Many Redditors who commented on her post urged her to take the matter to the authorities
“You could call the police and get a police report made out, but proving who did it will be the problem. But you definitely have something on paper in case it happens again. Definitely get a ring cam or something cordless to record what’s going on. I’m also wondering if you get the landlord cited for using that hole for trash.”
“Call me crazy, but I don’t think dumping into a random hole is entirely legal.”
“Somebody stole your property, plain and simple. You can’t be sure they won’t be back in the future to do more against you or your property, so you need to call the police right away and tell them everything”
For clarification, Lemonadeandfireflies explained that laws in her rural area differ from those in other counties and states. As a result, accusing the landlord of “illegal dumping” might not be especially effective, though tossing trash into a wooded area remains clearly unethical.
Still, since theft is a crime, the woman said she planned to call the local deputy and start a paper trail in an effort to hold her landlord accountable for taking her furniture and throwing it away.
