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My Roommate Disappeared 2+ Months Ago! Can I Keep His Stuff?
- Thread starter HappyDude20
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This.
Nearly every school has Student Legal Services, it's surely a better option than asking for opinions here.
Whoever leased it to him would have an emergency contact assuming they went through the proper procedures. This would be somewhat relevant.
http://www2.courtinfo.ca.gov/protem/courses/ud/03_309.htm
If he is on the lease, contact the landlord. Landlord should have an emergency contact. I guess you could try filing a missing person report with the police, as that does not sound like normal abandonment. It's just that normally when someone moves in you'd acquire some kind of identification and emergency contact information. I can't remember the full details on abandoned personal property. There are laws regarding it. I'm just not going to list what I recall as it could be incorrect or outdated.
you're living in an apartment you sublet from some guy in africa? LOL, that sounds so like a craigslist nigerian internet scam! 
Anyway, I also live in an apartment near UCLA and just recently a neighbor vanished and stopped paying his rent. To legally get rid of him, the apartment complex had to take him to court and evict him. He never showed at the court hearing of course so the apartment complex got an eviction order against him. To get rid of his stuff legally they had to post a notice telling him he had a certain time in which he could come and reclaim his possessions. After that time they were legally free to remove and dispose of his stuff.
In your case, since you don't have any sort of legal agreement with the missing guy, I suspect that means you don't have any "legal" right to his stuff.
Anyway, I also live in an apartment near UCLA and just recently a neighbor vanished and stopped paying his rent. To legally get rid of him, the apartment complex had to take him to court and evict him. He never showed at the court hearing of course so the apartment complex got an eviction order against him. To get rid of his stuff legally they had to post a notice telling him he had a certain time in which he could come and reclaim his possessions. After that time they were legally free to remove and dispose of his stuff.
In your case, since you don't have any sort of legal agreement with the missing guy, I suspect that means you don't have any "legal" right to his stuff.
It's not your stuff op plain and simple
If anyone has a claim to it, it's the landlord. Assuming the owner or family don't pick it up
At any rate contact the cops. Can't believe this hasn't been done yet
If anyone has a claim to it, it's the landlord. Assuming the owner or family don't pick it up
At any rate contact the cops. Can't believe this hasn't been done yet
Maybe you should report him as missing to the police. Nobody just leaves that kind of stuff laying around.
^^^
While you and your roomies plot the distribution of this individuals belongings, he could have had an accident, a breakdown, be lying dead someplace anything could have happend.
I'd contact missing persons, he's been gone long enough for them to take it seriously.
And no, you can't just take his possessions either.
While you and your roomies plot the distribution of this individuals belongings, he could have had an accident, a breakdown, be lying dead someplace anything could have happend.
I'd contact missing persons, he's been gone long enough for them to take it seriously.
And no, you can't just take his possessions either.
Another vote to report him missing. You don't know anything about his family? His friends? Nobody just leaves these kind of things around.
I would have called the police after one week if my roommate disappeared and didn't answer calls and texts. Especially if I don't know his habits because I only met him in August of this year.
You really don't need any information about him. You just need his first and last name and take that to the police, let them handle it. I would never ever ever cover a roommates rent unless he was a good friend. I'm sorry but you guys really didn't handle this situation properly.
Suspicious actually, they could make a CSI episode out of this (lol).
You really don't need any information about him. You just need his first and last name and take that to the police, let them handle it. I would never ever ever cover a roommates rent unless he was a good friend. I'm sorry but you guys really didn't handle this situation properly.
Suspicious actually, they could make a CSI episode out of this (lol).
Sounds like OP is trying really hard to justify taking someone's stuff without even a good faith effort to resolve the problem. Lots of good advice so far, which OP just dismisses while salivating over a bike.
That's how I read the thread. The fact is, the guy could very easily call the police who will find out who his roommate is and take action. The stuff is just stuff and I can't believe the OP is so insensitive to focus on stuff and not a human being.
This. Call the police and let them track down his next of kin. What if he was killed or kidnapped? Or is lying in a hospital somewhere in a coma?
Exactly. The well-being of your missing roommate is more important than whether or not you get to keep his stuff. If you suddenly went missing for months, would you want your roommates to do nothing but eye your stuff instead of contacting the police to figure out what happened to you?
Greed.....such greed.....what a singularly unpleasant original post. Really? You don't come across "a nice flat screen and bike" every day? How unfortunate for you. Seize the day, and all that....
Good advice.
..... We thought about moving his stuff into a unit but that costs money and considering we've not heard a peep from him fear we'd never get the money back.
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... but he does have a nice bike which I would love to have... but still, nothing is happening, its just sitting here and figured i'd ask the question.
Sigh.
Exactly.
How do you know that he 'has dropped out?' You are merely making this assumption without any knowledge of the guy or his situation.
As other posters have said, he could be dead, comatose, suffered a mugging, a murder, a breakdown, you don't know, and, until you make a serious effort to find out you will have no way of knowing. To say 'I think he dropped out' is - I think - mentally lazy and, frankly, extremely self-serving in this instance.
Exactly.
I'm astonished that no effort has been made to contact the administration in the school. Of course the administration/college bureaucracy/college authorities have his contact details. And, of course, they won't give them out to you, but they will most certainly attempt to contact him themselves and seek an explanation for why he has - apparently - vanished into thin air.
I have taught in universities for decades; if a student fails to show for classes, or turn in essays and assignments, questions get asked.
That seems like a good solution....
So, deep down, you want approval - or permission - or sanction from anonymous contributors to support a course of action which will allow you (in your own mind) to take the guys stuff, and divide it up between you, but you cannot be bothered (I was about to write a considerably ruder word) to 1) contact the college authorities, 2) or contact the police.
OP, you are not covering yourself in glory here. I have to say I am not impressed by your justifications, or prevarications. Pathetic, in fact.
Exactly.
This is a very good post, and makes total sense in the circumstances.
The tone of this post is depressing. Really depressing.
Nicely-phrased. Seriously, OP, your thread strikes me as a particularly pathetic attempt to persuade yourself (by persuading those posting) that you have permission to treat yourself to these effects.
You don't.
If the guy has died, or is incapacitated for any reason, his effects fall to his family, not you or your mates. While I'm astonished that you have done next to nothing about attempting to find out what may have happened, I'm even more astonished that you are looking for excuses to keep what you have described, over the course of several posts, as 'pretty good stuff'.
Fine. See your school's legal department, then. Inform them what has happened, and seek their advice. Simple.
Really? You want a bike? And what exactly explains the 'infancy in this thread' - the mind boggles - your outlook, or the considered responses of those who have suggested that you approach the relevant authorities?
The 'situation' won't allow you to get it. This is not your property...and seeking permission to help yourself to the good of someone missing, injured, dead, or absent for good (or bad) reasons is disgraceful behaviour.
These are a dreadful set of posts......seriously, if I was a tutor or lecturer or yours, and such a situation arose, I'd roast your miserable backside.
I can (just about) handle your casual disregard for a mysteriously missing room-mate, but your naked opportunistic greed is, to be candid, quite disgusting and rather nauseating.
No, it is not just you. It is what I think, also. Excellent and thoughtful post, by the way.
What a self-serving post. Why are you sure dropping into a campus office 'won't do much'? And how are you 'fairly certain' he isn't coming back, and 'confident' he dropped out of school? Really? You have evidence? Or are you just looking for excuses to take his stuff?
Yes, indeed.
Absolutely, couldn't agree more.
Oh, tosh. Utter tosh. Utter and total tosh. I'm amazed at how Twitter, FB and Skype make mincemeat of time zones and distance.....and yet, when ever so slightly inconveniencing to you, 'time zones' suddenly emerge as a salient and serious argument. Ridiculous.
Yes. Exactly.
They have and you should contact them and pay close heed to what they have to say.
Amen to that. I couldn't agree more.
Yes. This is also true.
I have also asked this question.
Another answer with which I'm in complete agreement.
True.
Very well expressed. Couldn't agree more.
This is my view, as well.
This. Call the police and let them track down his next of kin. What if he was killed or kidnapped? Or is lying in a hospital somewhere in a coma?
Exactly. The well-being of your missing roommate is more important than whether or not you get to keep his stuff. If you suddenly went missing for months, would you want your roommates to do nothing but eye your stuff instead of contacting the police to figure out what happened to you?
And again, another excellent post, with the right priorities.
Yes. A good question.
Seriously, OP, your conduct leaves a lot to be desired. Indifference to the possible fate of your absent room-mate is quite unpleasant, and most certainly not to be applauded, but the sheer naked greed all too evident in your posts is most unsettling. Not at all to your credit.
Go to the college authorities if you cannot or prefer not to, rent storage space. Go to the police if that doesn't appeal. Do not divide up his possessions. Do not cast longing eyes on them, either. Do not seek permission to do so from an anonymous internet forum - I'm certainly not about to sanction such disgraceful behaviour. They do not belong to you. You have no right to them. None.
Try to develop a little empathy, or sympathy. And maybe, just maybe, try to cultivate a slight sense of the responsibilities that come with being an adult - you know, that time of life when you are allowed to wield a gun, drive a car, (God forbid) vote, or cast a ballot, father a child, buy a drink......and seek to find out what may have happened to someone who may have been unfortunate to fall through the cracks in life before you divide up his possessions with a gleam of greed in your eye.
I forwarded the URL of this thread to a friend of mine that works for the LAPD. Will something be done or can they do anything with this information who knows, but at least its 1 step more than what the OP has done to find his roomate that could be in a roadside ditch for all he knows.
The OP should contact the LAPD if for anything else but to make a missing persons report. The OP's behavior in this thread is repulsive and scares me to think that this is the future of the USA's youth..
The OP should contact the LAPD if for anything else but to make a missing persons report. The OP's behavior in this thread is repulsive and scares me to think that this is the future of the USA's youth..
"Hey, uh... has anyone seen my stuff?!?!" I was, like, out at the bar and got a little wasted - and I met this cool dude with a BMW bike... and, well, we ended up in Cabo. Whoa.... was that great or what.... And then I got a job at a bar, 'cause they were all into, like -peace and love and existentionalism.... well, anyway... I just got back into town, and let me tell you it would have been a lot easier crossing the line if I had, like, remembered my passport... but luckily one of my friends in Cabo was coming across with a truck of cows, and he let me ride in the back... whoa!! smelly man! But anyway, I'm back now.... and when I come back to my apartment there's like this new dude in my room, and stuff is, like, in all the different rooms, and they were like 'Dude! How you been! We'd have been worried about you, but that would have been too much effort, and instead we decided we just wanted your stuff.... oops.... welcome back.... landlord says you owe him for a month or something...'"
Seriously, you are are supposedly a college student. You've avoided every logical step to this situation. You like his bike and his T.V. (of which you said was already in your room), you obviously really like your roommate and actually care about him.
He could be studying abroad, family problems, dead, in jail, missing, or facing financial problems. Or, he could be well off and was willing to "give" you his material items just to never have to deal with you all again.
2 hours out of your life to report him as missing to the police or speak to the University to get answers, but no, you decided to just let it go and post on an online forum.
He could be studying abroad, family problems, dead, in jail, missing, or facing financial problems. Or, he could be well off and was willing to "give" you his material items just to never have to deal with you all again.
2 hours out of your life to report him as missing to the police or speak to the University to get answers, but no, you decided to just let it go and post on an online forum.
Quite true, and here we are. So, if he's made no effort to contact any of us then its his fault...but obviously assuming the worst or something bad has happened then its at the least best we try to locate and contact him. Which is what i've somewhat attempted to do. My roommates don't care about this at all, not even to the point of speaking or mentioning it or posting about it online, though admittedly this post is about how to score a bike, but the truth is I could care less about "his" bike considering I can go and purchase my own.
I"m sure those invested in this thread would like to hear the end result of all this, as would I... but as of tonight the landlord doesn't seem to care and the lease owner in Africa just doesn't reply, both of which are the only ones that (may) have this guy's contact info.
I'll keep you updated.
Truth is, if we never once met him we would all be possibly worried...but the fact that he walked in once with beers and weed, came in to grab his laptop and bounced, aside from both the lease owner and landlord telling us he "comes and goes" for weeks at a time made us assume he was just a college student that spends most of his time outside of his living complex.
I understand the majority of this thread is barking at me for it all, and to some extent I have to admit that it's not my problem or situation, but yet here we are. I'll do what I can in attempts to contact him or those close to him... but at this moment, I just don't know what will turn up in regards to who i'll be contacting.
Of course we all hope for his well being, and even 2+ months in I don't think anything bad happened to him, and that is speculation, but we all of us only met him once. We didn't know him, we just heard of him. The first few weeks I expected him to walk in at any moment, then week in I had girls over with the door unlocked thinking he would call or something. Then sometime in Sept. he walked in with beer and weed and a friend; spent no more than an hour at most on the balcony and left. I and the other roommates asked him questions, like what his major was, I asked him what his sleeping schedule was and rules/qualms re: having girls spend the night were... but he didn't seem invested in the conversation. He then left, without saying goodbye and that was it. Considering all of that, I assume he just went his way; which is what we all hope he did.. and hoping he isn't hurt in any manner.
I'll update the thread should any info arise.
Which is just dandy, but without any official inquiry or report, his looking into it is a personal favor and not business related, so he cannot legally access certain databases (CLETS, Etc.) that might actually return with useful information. Of course, the very fact that there has not yet been posted any useful identifying information, like this guy's name or date of birth or anything at all unique or identifying will result in your LAPD friend doing and finding nothing at all at this point.
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