Man Says His Friend’s Roommate Stole His Stuff — Then Marketplace Listings Made the Story Even Shadier

A 27-year-old woman says she tried to help a friend get out of a miserable living situation by letting him stay in her empty apartment for a month. When she came back, the place was trashed, some belongings were gone, and the missing items appeared to be listed for sale by his roommate.

She explained in a Reddit post that she splits her time between two cities in her province. Because of some work weirdness, she spent November with her fiancé and was away from her flat in the other city.

A male friend, 31, had a rough housing setup. He shared a bedroom with an ex and had four roommates. Since the woman’s apartment would be empty for the month, she invited him to stay there while she was gone.

It was supposed to be a favor.

When she returned, the apartment was a mess. She said she was not thrilled, but she also knew he was messy, so that part did not shock her as much. What bothered her was that some items were missing.

When she asked him about the missing things, he deflected.

That was the first real warning sign. If someone stays in your home and things vanish, the normal response is concern, not dodging. A decent friend would help figure out what happened, apologize for anything that went wrong, and take responsibility for whoever they allowed into the space.

Instead, she started getting vague answers.

Then she found something worse.

On Facebook Marketplace, she saw ads posted by his roommate selling items that looked identical to the belongings missing from her apartment.

That changed the situation from “maybe something got misplaced” to “someone may be selling my stuff online.”

The woman did not know the roommate well. She knew the friend through mutual friends, but the roommate was not someone she had personally trusted with her home. If the roommate had been inside the apartment, that was already a problem. If the roommate had stolen items and listed them for sale, that was much worse.

The woman called out her friend and threatened to call police.

That is when he made her feel like she was overreacting.

That reaction hurt because she had done him a major favor. She gave him a clean place to stay away from a bad living situation. He had access to her private home, belongings, and personal space. When she returned to missing items and Marketplace listings, he should have taken it seriously.

Instead, she was the one questioning herself.

The comments pushed her hard to stop being so nice. Many people said she had already given him more sympathy than he deserved. Some believed the friend may have taken the items himself and used the roommate’s Marketplace account to create distance. Others thought the roommate stole them and the friend was covering for him.

Either way, the same core issue remained: her belongings disappeared while her friend had access to her apartment, and the friend was not acting like someone horrified by that.

In an update, the woman said she filed a police report. She did not share specifics because the situation was ongoing, but she said she felt optimistic and thanked commenters for giving her the courage to do it.

Then she received messages from the now ex-friend, and the tone seemed to confirm for many readers that she had made the right call. Commenters reacted strongly to the way he framed himself as the victim after she followed through on the police report.

That is the part that often happens after theft. The person who was stolen from is expected to be patient and generous. Then, the moment they involve police, the thief or enabler acts betrayed.

But the woman had been clear. She warned him. She gave chances. She waited for answers. And when the missing items appeared online, she stopped letting the situation get softened into a friendship misunderstanding.

Her home had been used. Her trust had been abused. Her belongings were gone.

At that point, calling police was not overreacting. It was finally reacting.

Commenters overwhelmingly told her she was not overreacting. Many said she should have called police the moment she saw the Marketplace listings.

Several people said the friend’s behavior was suspicious, whether he personally stole the items or simply allowed his roommate into the apartment and then covered for him. Either way, commenters said he betrayed her trust.

A lot of commenters focused on how kind she had been. She let him stay in her apartment for a month because his living situation was bad, and he repaid that by leaving the place trashed and giving her vague answers about missing property.

Others warned her not to respond further once the report was filed. They said anything else should go through police or the proper process.

The strongest advice was simple: when missing belongings show up on Marketplace under someone connected to the person who stayed in your home, it is no longer a friendship issue. It is theft.