In ten years of living in NYC, I lived in 10 apartments with dozens of roommates including a number of psychos. There was the roommate who kept a menagerie of pet snakes and tarantulas in his room including a boa constrictor that he would occasionally let out into the apartment. There was the woman who played guitar loudly and sang in her room at all hours of day and night while intermittently weeping. And there was the couple who were on a mailing list for a neo-Nazi organization and after they moved out I kept receiving newsletters with articles about "the Jew problem" (I'm Jewish). Honestly not sure which one was worse. You'd think I would've learned to vet my roommates better, but cheap rent is cheap rent! And most of the time, you don't realize your roommate is a psycho until it's too late.
These 19 people share their stories of the moments they realized they were co-habitating with an actual "psycho":
1.) From kexcellent:
Her Craigslist ad for a roommate said "I'm quiet and mostly spend time in my room gaming and hanging out with my cats". I'm pretty introverted, and rent was cheap, so it sounded perfect.
I moved in and she proved herself to be the polar opposite of her Craigslist ad - loud, extroverted, in my room and in my business 24/7, and a raging alcoholic. She'd regularly have random people over getting blackout drunk until 4am when I'd have to be up for work at 8 or earlier. She left nasty food messes everywhere that led to a cockroach problem (which she didn't believe when I showed her) and got mad when I didn't want to help clean up after her. She didn't have a job, lived off of an inheritance and spent it all on alcohol. I later learned she had a shoplifting problem as well when she kept getting court summons in the mail that she wore like a badge of honor.
The last straw was when she invited the guy she was seeing over and they proceeded to get fucked up on benzos and a half gallon of rum, threatened each other with steak knives in the kitchen at 5am and pounded on my door screaming at me to call the cops on one another. I told them it wasn't my problem and promptly moved my shit out while she was out of the house the following day (I thankfully had a place lined up already). Fuck. That.
2.) From Zavarakatranemi:
I would start doing laundry and he would sneak in right after I had started the washing machine, while it was still calibrating, to pause it, and sniff/taste my underwear. I caught him one day, he claimed he was just "checking something".
3.) From RingStrider:
Living in a college student-only apartment building, I requested move to a new room because of party animal roommates. Rooms are all five bedroom suites with shared bathrooms, kitchen, and living room. As it's summer, three of the bedrooms in the new room are rented but empty by students not there for the summer, and only one roommate is actually present.
Meet the new roommate, seems normal, chill, talk about video games and music a lot. Honestly seemed like he could be a great friend at first.
One day a few weeks later, I start hearing random screaming and crashing coming from his room. At one point he knocks on my door, asking for a broom, as he's broken a few things. I give him a dustpan and broom and ask if he's okay, he mumbles something to himself as he walks back to his room and slams the door.
A few hours later, more screaming, more crashing, and again he knocks on the door, this time asking for some tape. I give him some and again ask if he's okay, and he replies he might need to go to the mental hospital but I don't need to do anything.
I go to bed with some earplugs in (a habit I'd formed because of previous party animal roommates) , and the next morning our shared kitchen and living room is TRASHED. Broken furniture, drawers and cabinets torn off the wall, a knife sticking out of the wall, TV cratered in as if it was punched, the whole nine.
Luckily for me I'm leaving for a family event that weekend, so I decide to head out early and leave right that second (after taking pictures of the damage.)
On my way out of the building, I stop at the building manager's office to tell her everything. She already knew something was up, as apparently a window from his room was smashed and objects were thrown onto the sidewalk below.
She asks me to write up an email detailing what I'd seen and provide her the pictures I took. I do so and bail.
A few hours later, I get a text from a friend who works near my building saying "LOL bro there's a ton of cops surrounding your building, did you kill someone or something?"
I emailed the building manager to ask what happened, but she tells me the police were inside our suite, but she can't detail what happened with him due to privacy concerns.
A few days later, going back to the building, I pop in her office to ask the building manager for details or warnings before I go up. She's not there, but her assistant is. I ask the assistant, whose only reply to my concerns is "You know, the eviction process takes a really long time."
I go up to the room, shitting myself, expecting the worst, but luckily he's not around at the moment. I didn't see him again for a couple days, and once I did, he acted completely casually and as if nothing had happened. Casually asking about video games and random shit standing in an apartment with completely torn apart cabinets and furniture.
A week or so later, he's gone without a trace. Apparently his family forced him to move back home and defer going to college so he could get better.
Apparently when I'd left for that weekend, why the police showed up, the building manager contacted the roommates father, but when the father showed up, the roommate threatened and/or attempted suicide and possibly threatened to kill someone (people who were nearby/present differ in stories) so the police had to show up and break into the room. He seemed to have a history of mental illness and had a few events in his life that caused this breakdown.
Good news, a year and a half later I see on social media he ended up finishing college, has a full time job, and seems to be functioning very well.
4.) From cortechthrowaway:
I was cooking dinner one night, and I just couldn't find the kitchen knives. Like, the whole block was missing from its usual spot on the countertop.
Figured my roommate had moved them for some reason, but it took me forever to find them--tucked far back in the cabinet above the refrigerator.
When my roommate got home, I asked her about it. She told me, "Oh, I had this horrible thought that I might stab you to death in your sleep, so I hid them up there."
I was young (this was my first place out of school), and I did not know how to react. I was split three ways:
Shock, because she really was not a violent person. No angry outbursts, no threats, certainly no violence in her past.
Bewilderment, because that's not how hiding works. It's not hidden from you if you know where it is!
Trepidation, because, was that a threat?
5.) From headybra:
Shitting in the shower and talking about it like it's a normal thing.
6.) From z9pET5oB8A:
where do I start with this guy, he was unstable in multiple ways.
one time I saw some scratches on the hallway wall. for a couple days I kept thinking, what could we have carried down the hallway that made those scratches? One night when everybody else was out, I heard a weird metal scraping noise. I peeked out of my room and saw him walking up and down that hallway, holding a big kitchen knife, dragging the point along the wall and talking to himself. I couldn't hear what he was saying.
7.) From crazyladyscientist:
When I finally put together that the reason she was divorced by 25, had dozens of "terrible" relationships, a boss who "treated her like garbage", had all past roommates who were "awful people" and no close friends because people "didn't know how to be good friends and always ended up taking advantage of her" wasn't because she just had terrible luck. It turns out she was just a terrible person
8.) From DepressedHermit1:
Oof, how do I even explain this? I used to live with a "friend" who did everything she could to destroy my romantic life. I did not realize this until Boy #3. I wasn't really attached to Boy #1 or #2, so when those flings died out, I didn't think deeply about it; however, I was crazy about Boy #3 and finally started to look into what was going on.
The first thing I noticed were the rumors. She started telling me things like, "Boy #3 told me that you make him uncomfortable and he really doesn't like you. I don't think you should hang out with him again, you're just going to embarrass yourself. I'm trying to look after you." She would repeat variations of this over and over and over again, always trying to make herself look like a good friend. During this time, I also heard from one of her gossipy friends that she had been telling people that I was really ugly, caked my face in makeup, faked my personality, and was a bitch. None of these things were true. I tried to confront her about it and she said that her friend had made it up. I wasn't friends with this person, so I gave my roommate the benefit of the doubt at first.
Then she started ostracizing me from events. Boy #3 was best friends with her boyfriend, so often times her boyfriend would invite me to things because he was trying to get us to hook up. Whenever she found out about this, she would purposely give me the wrong date for the event or lie to me that it was a date between her and her boyfriend. At one point, she was supposed to drive with me to a party, but instead she locked me out of the car and drove away because she didn't want me there.
At first when I confronted her, she told me "You deserved it," and then gave me the silent treatment for days. As time went on, she started screaming at me, telling me that I "don't deserve love," that she's "the beautiful one" and that she's the one that deserves male attention, not me. Multiple times she told me that "ugly people don't deserve love" and that she's the only person in the world who is beautiful, so she's the only one who should be loved. After we stopped living together, she sent me a really long FB message telling me that I'm worthless, my life has no value, it insults her that I don't understand that I am inferior to her, and that I'm lucky she was ever friends with me because she's an incredibly kind and beautiful woman and I should be grateful that she ever spoke to me. I cut contact with her.
The moment I realized she was a psychopath was three years later, when she contacted me out of the blue. The whole reason she contacted me was to yell at me about Boy #3 (who I had no contact with). Once again, she told me that I was "not allowed" to speak to him and that I was ugly and didn't deserve love. She then threatened me and told me to leave the country because she doesn't want me near him. She also yelled at me about how I had "no right" to end our friendship and told me that she'd been cyberstalking me the whole time and keeping an eye on where I was working and what I was up to because "we're still friends." She continued to stalk me online for another year. I don't know if she's still doing so. She did a lot of other shitty things, like emotionally abusing and cheating on her boyfriend, trying to get me to stop being friends with other girls because I was "her" friend, using people for their money, stealing and destroying my stuff, etc. She's a vile person.
9.) From Makeshift-Masquerade:
This one roommate I had never washed her clothes. She just wore a new outfit every single day. I assumed she was rich and decided not to engage with her since she never said hi to me when we saw each other.
At the end of the semester, I smelled something so awful that I can’t really describe with the words available to me in the english language. I guess I’ll say this to give you an idea. If it were a scent for a candle, I would call it something like: “Hormones and Bad Decisions”
I took a look outside my door, and I saw she left a luggage trolley meant for helping people carry large amounts of stuff, that was FULL of dirty clothes. I gagged when I saw some old panties were at the top of the large pile.
We had laundry machines. She had money. They sold detergent and drier sheets downstairs. I have no idea why she did this, but I assumed she was probably the one who was behind the mystery of how “nobody flushed the toilet” even though we all swore we did.
10.) From bonemonkey12:
I was a bartender where she was waitressing and she needed a place to stay. I had nothing fancy, a 2 bed lower, that cost me $400 a month at the time (early 2000s). Her half of the rent was 200. And there was off street parking.
She was crushing up oxycontin and snorting it because apparently pill form wasn't good enough.
Her mood swings between her and her boyfriend were ridiculous. Throwing my stuff at each other, breaking crap. I found she had stolen a few hundred dollars from me.
At the time I had about $50k worth of music equipment and instruments at the house. I had enough and threw her out.
I ended up getting a call from her mother about a month later. She was calling to thank me. Apparently the previous roommate had checked herself into rehab after I kicked her out and she was 30 days sober. She had found Jesus and was trying to get into something called the WorkCorp.
She also apparently ditched the boyfriend, who I learned was on again and off again for years and the source of get habit.
She actually personally stopped by a year later and thanked me for kicking her out because she got her life on track.
Hopefully she stayed sober. I hate to admit, I was being selfish because I didn't want my music stuff to disappear.
11.) From MyPupWrigley:
Her mom, the master electrician (JK she was an HR rep), told her that every piece of electronics that was plugged in cost at least a dollar a day.
So every fucking day when I went to class I came home to all my shit unplugged. I tried reasoning with her. With just the standard house appliances we'd be sitting on a 300 dollar electric bill. But no. Months and months this went on.
I worked off campus and stayed for spring break while she went home. At that point I had basically moved in with my girlfriend anyways so I unplugged everything. Every appliance in the house that needed electricity got unplugged. Fridge was left with the door cracked open.
The next week she threw an absolute shit fit at me. I just said, "Hey, I wasn't gonna be here so I was just trying to save us money". She wasn't a fan of that.
12.) From InternetKidsAreMean:
I don't know if this counts as "psycho" as much as it does "creepy as fuck" --
I had a roommate, who at the age of 27+, would make it a point to only go after girls in High School. I would come home from work with some beer and weed ready to enjoy my weekend, only to find a 16-17 year old girl in my house.
Naturally, he tried to argue the "age of consent" bullshit, but he and I both knew the real truth:
Grown women over the age of 20 could see his one-dimensional "alpha male, high school jock" bullshit from a mile away; naive high school girls were his only option.
Sure, they were "consenting" and all, it's not like he was violently raping them or giving them the ol' Cosby, but still... so fucking grimy.
I always secretly fantasized about a day where one of their father's would show up to my house looking for his daughter.
13.) From Konfliction:
Unplugged the wifi because she was scarred the wifi signal would fuck with her dreams and cause her to toss and turn all night.
14.) From SalemScout:
She took all the pots and pans into her room. Not just her own, but literally all of them. We never got an explanation as to why. They eventually got put back, but for a little while they were just piled on her bed.
She accused us of spitting in her bottle of soy sauce. None of us would have done that, so we were all like "no...?" She had no reason to believe we would have. She threw it out.
She would leave the apartment and then the building at odd hours. I'm an insomniac and I asked her about it once like "hey, was that you at 3AM leaving?" because I wasn't sure. She flipped her shit on me and accused me of stalking her.
Her boyfriend came to stay with her for a week. I was in graduate school and made time to hang out a little, go out to dinner with them one night, the standard stuff. After he left, she accused me of not spending enough time with him. She expected me to be around the whole time.
Over all she was a nice girl, but towards the end she kind of went off the deep end. We were both in really tough programs, so I chocked it up to stress. But she never got back to normal. She now lives in Germany (married to the boyfriend) and is happy doing...I don't even know what.
15.) From DepressedHermit1:
Oof, how do I even explain this? I used to live with a "friend" who did everything she could to destroy my romantic life. I did not realize this until Boy #3. I wasn't really attached to Boy #1 or #2, so when those flings died out, I didn't think deeply about it; however, I was crazy about Boy #3 and finally started to look into what was going on.
The first thing I noticed were the rumors. She started telling me things like, "Boy #3 told me that you make him uncomfortable and he really doesn't like you. I don't think you should hang out with him again, you're just going to embarrass yourself. I'm trying to look after you." She would repeat variations of this over and over and over again, always trying to make herself look like a good friend. During this time, I also heard from one of her gossipy friends that she had been telling people that I was really ugly, caked my face in makeup, faked my personality, and was a bitch. None of these things were true. I tried to confront her about it and she said that her friend had made it up. I wasn't friends with this person, so I gave my roommate the benefit of the doubt at first.
Then she started ostracizing me from events. Boy #3 was best friends with her boyfriend, so often times her boyfriend would invite me to things because he was trying to get us to hook up. Whenever she found out about this, she would purposely give me the wrong date for the event or lie to me that it was a date between her and her boyfriend. At one point, she was supposed to drive with me to a party, but instead she locked me out of the car and drove away because she didn't want me there.
At first when I confronted her, she told me "You deserved it," and then gave me the silent treatment for days. As time went on, she started screaming at me, telling me that I "don't deserve love," that she's "the beautiful one" and that she's the one that deserves male attention, not me. Multiple times she told me that "ugly people don't deserve love" and that she's the only person in the world who is beautiful, so she's the only one who should be loved. After we stopped living together, she sent me a really long FB message telling me that I'm worthless, my life has no value, it insults her that I don't understand that I am inferior to her, and that I'm lucky she was ever friends with me because she's an incredibly kind and beautiful woman and I should be grateful that she ever spoke to me. I cut contact with her.
The moment I realized she was a psychopath was three years later, when she contacted me out of the blue. The whole reason she contacted me was to yell at me about Boy #3 (who I had no contact with). Once again, she told me that I was "not allowed" to speak to him and that I was ugly and didn't deserve love. She then threatened me and told me to leave the country because she doesn't want me near him. She also yelled at me about how I had "no right" to end our friendship and told me that she'd been cyberstalking me the whole time and keeping an eye on where I was working and what I was up to because "we're still friends." She continued to stalk me online for another year. I don't know if she's still doing so. She did a lot of other shitty things, like emotionally abusing and cheating on her boyfriend, trying to get me to stop being friends with other girls because I was "her" friend, using people for their money, stealing and destroying my stuff, etc. She's a vile person.
16.) From Ironstream:
My wife had a roommate in college who kept a roll of paper towels in the bathroom. One day my wife used the paper towels to clean up the bathroom, which is what she thought the towels were meant for. The roommate confronted her and asked her to buy more paper towels. Apparently the roommate was using paper towels to dry herself, instead of you know, a towel.
Same woman would use pots and pans and not clean them up, but she wasn’t very tall so my wife started putting them on the top shelves where the roommate couldn’t reach them. Problem solved!
Same woman had a first date, at age 21, and my wife got her made up and did a pep talk with her and when the guy came to pick the roommate up... she just stayed on the couch. She ignored her ringing phone for about 45 minutes then my wife went down and told the dude it wasn’t happening that night. The roommate stayed sitting on the couch acting like nothing was wrong.
Same woman came into the store where my wife was working, a few years after they had a new lease come up and they just... moved to new apartments without speaking to each other. The roommate is there with her mom, my wife sort of leaves an opening to say hello and the roommate made absolutely no attempts at conversation, bought some stuff, and left. Apparently my wife and the roommate had shopped together at the same store years before that.
Needless to say this woman was weird. I’ve never met her.
17.) From somemetausername:
Whenever his alarm would go off he would thrash around like he was having a seizure as he woke up. He slept on a top bunk and it took him a few weeks to keep from hitting his head on the ceiling first thing. He would then jump out of bed and walk over to one of the windows and yank really hard on the mini blind string, until the blinds on that window fell down. (After the first set of blinds fell I replaced it with a blackout shade, but instead of pulling that up he would yank really hard on the remaining window’s set of mini blinds until those fell down) he would listen to screamo all the time. He had a set of sharpened wolverine claws even though we weren’t supposed to have weapons in the dorm. He worked out all the time and once another guy on our hall pissed him off (for doing almost nothing) so he body slammed him.
18.) From ZachLaunch:
Ate two slices of bread while going ”super saiyan”. Making direct eye contact. Taking a bite in between power-ups. I should add that he was completely naked. I woke up the next morning and he and everything he owned was just gone.
19.) From vvvulture:
She called the police because she was convinced someone wiped poop on her towel and wanted them to do a DNA test so she could find the culprit. She was very mad when they told her they don’t provide those services and so then she called our utilities provider and had water and electricity turned off. She left for two nights, came back, during which I had transferred the utilities in my name and got it turned on. She then screamed at me that she didn’t want to pay for the two days she was cooling off somewhere else bc of the poop towel, and that she was going to take me to small claims court. I said all right sounds good. Then she threw a flip flop at me. I almost started laughing really hard but called her dad instead. He picked her up and she was gone for the rest of the lease until move out Day she came for her things. Was so happy she left though, her dad still kept paying her rent.
Thank you poop towel.