This guy recorded weird voicemails from his landlord for a year, and it’s impossible to stop listening
Landlords anywhere have a bit of a reputation for being weird, but especially NYC landlords. Maybe it’s something to do with living in the city that never sleeps, maybe it has to do with feeling responsible for tenants living in tiny apartments at all times. Maybe it’s just trying to stay ahead of the recycling codes. Either way, none of those other NYC landlords have anything on this guy’s old landlord!
This man recorded a year of his landlord’s voicemails, and they’re mesmerizing!
Kind of like how when you see an accident about to happen and you can’t stop it but you can’t look away? These messages are that kind of mesmerizing!
Here’s the story: Rita the landlord starts off with messages that are kind of weird, but still totally innocent. She offers to watch the tenant’s cat while they’re out of town. Hey, that’s a little intrusive for a landlord, but still kind of a nice gesture. Then it gets even weirder, with her asking if he can give her some of his pots and pans because she needs more! And a paper shredder, ya know, if he just happens to be getting rid of one of those!
Uh, what??
Tenants are a lot of things, but they’re not the first stop before you go to the store.
Soon what starts as seemingly innocent situation starts to get dire. The apartment starts to leak, and there’s no heat. Rita hires a plumber that disassembles the boiler and messes up the entire apartment!
And yet while this all annoying, this isn’t quite out of the ordinary. Anyone who has had a NYC landlord can tell you it’s a bit of a complicated relationship, where the tenant often endures weird stuff for the reward of paying lots of money to continue living in NYC. (It’s a great city, we swear!)
However, then Rita’s calls start to take a bit of a dark turn.
Rita calls them while they’re on vacation, because she hears their cat meowing and the lights are off (you know, because they’re on vacation and not home). She is concerned that the person they hired to watch the cat isn’t doing so, and demands that they get someone in to turn the lights on for the cat. Never mind that cats can see in the dark, and also Rita, why are you just lurking outside of their apartment??
Rita later calls freaking out about holding on to five pieces of their mail, while they’re on vacation and screams at them to get someone to come get it from her. She also implies that they’re lying about going on vacation and hiding in their apartment while she knocks on the door calling for them?
Seriously, what?
It’s here that the audio editing becomes a little faster and Rita’s choruses of “Hey Brian!” start to feel incredibly ominous. Meanwhile, we see footage of the couple packing their things and beginning to start moving out. The last couple seconds are of their brand new, silent apartment where they presumably live in peace.
Oh, and the kicker? At the end they reveal that they didn’t get their security deposit back! This is truly a NYC apartment horror story!
So best wishes to Brian and Thomas, we’re so glad that you are in a new apartment and everything is going well for you. Also don’t forget to feed your cat Casper! (Seriously, just kidding!)
