When people start to get physically aggressive, it’s usually a sign to get the police involved. And that’s exactly what Reddit strongly suggested to a tenant in Pennsylvania whose landlord got a little too close for comfort, even going as far as to destroy the renter’s property. The story begins with the tenant telling the landlord that he wanted to end his lease early. The owner then visited without notice, before trying to forcibly enter. The lessee was recording the whole ordeal with his phone, but in moments, the landlord snatched it away and smashed it on the floor.
Obviously scared and upset, the renter tried to quickly shut the door, but the landlord’s hand was in the way. “I didn’t realize it was in the doorway and felt horrible,” recalled the Pennsylvania tenant. “I asked if he was okay and he spit on me, said he’s calling the cops and hurried back to his house a few doors down.” The renter did the right thing and drove straight to the police station to explain what happened before filing a supplemental police report.
Upon returning to his house, the tenant encountered the landlord’s son waiting for him. Fortunately, the son was quite apologetic and offered to let the renter stay for three months for free if he didn’t break the lease early. Of course, the renter explained how he wanted to leave: that’s when the son got aggressive and threatened to sue for “injuring his father.” Now, the tenant is worried he might have “violated Pennsylvania’s wiretap statute” for recording the incident on his now-broken phone.
The majority of the comment section was on the lessee’s side, and they were confident the police would help resolve this problem. “There is ‘the law’ & then there is ‘the law’ –I have never known a cop or a lawyer to not listen to a recording regardless of legality & yes, of course, they make decisions off it even when it can’t be used in court,” says the top commenter. In other words, the renter should more or less be fine using the recording as evidence, especially after the landlord was aggressive enough to get violent with the phone.
