Roommate Roulette: Cannabis, Cops, And A Careless Cur

I’m a cheap b*****d, so rather than renting my own place or, God forbid, buying a home, I usually rent a room in a house shared with others, and I put the rent money saved to better use instead. Despite horror stories I’ve read online, I’ve mostly had pretty decent rental experiences. Either we all get along, or more often, everyone stays in their own room and ignores each other, and you only see a reminder the other person exists once or twice a week.

That was except for one experience. We had four in the house, but the newest person, replacing a tenant who moved out recently, was trouble. He smoked pot while playing music way too loud all the time, causing the house to stink and be too loud to do anything, including falling asleep. He was rude and left us to clean up for his messes and otherwise was just a terrible roommate. He also was home all the time — as far as we could tell he had no job or social life — which meant there was no time he wasn’t around making the place unlivable.

We reported this to our landlord, who assured me something would be done. When that something failed to materialize, I started looking for a different rental location only to find my house listed on the sites I checked. It seems my landlord’s idea of “doing something” was to wait until he had a replacement before he removed [Roommate].

One day, the doorbell rang, and after a few rings without anyone answering it, I paused my game and went down to see who it was at the same time that [Roommate] came up from his basement room. [Roommate] got there first, only to discover police officers asking to come in to speak with us.

[Roommate] clearly got worried, immediately insisted that they couldn’t come in, and asked what they wanted. I eavesdropped long enough to piece together that the police wanted to ask questions about a string of burglaries that I hadn’t realized were happening around where we lived. [Roommate]’s evident terror reminded me of his only leaving the house late at night, and of some mysterious items he had brought home even later at night that trusting, naïve me hadn’t thought to be suspicious enough about at the time.

Me: “You can come in, officers.”

Roommate: “What?! No, no! You’re not invited. You can’t come in.”

Me: “I’m also a legal tenant here, and I say you’re invited. Come on in.”

[Roommate] tried to bar the way in and continued protesting that they couldn’t come in. [Officer #1] just glared at him before saying, “Excuse me,” in a tone of voice that was more demand than request, and [Roommate] backed down so the officer could enter.

Me: “Come with me, please, officer.”

I started leading him down the steps toward [Roommate]’s room and away from my own. There was nothing but his room and the laundry down there, so [Roommate] was immediately suspicious.

Roommate: “Hey, you can’t go in my room.”

Me: “I’m not taking them in it.”

Roommate: “Then what the h*** are you doing?”

We got down there and, as I expected given [Roommate]’s past pattern of behavior, the door to his room was wide open and reeking of marijuana. Keep in mind, it was still illegal in the state back then.

Me: “Can you see anything interesting?”

Officer #1: “Indeed. Is that a joint?”

Me: “He brought some stuff in a black cardboard box he didn’t want us to know about last night and put it in there, too.”

[Officer #1] started to go in, and [Roommate] started ranting that the officer couldn’t go in there and that he knew they need permission, etc. Of course, while I’m far from a lawyer, I know just enough to know that the officers can enter the home if any resident invites them, even if another doesn’t. While I couldn’t give them permission to search [Roommate]’s room — only shared spaces — once they were in the hallway, they could look in and see plenty of evidence in plain sight that would allow them sufficient probable cause to enter his room.

[Roommate] ended up facing charges for theft — apparently, someone saw him rob a home just to walk right into ours — along with the use of illegal substances, and I think some other charges.

I had a long talk with my landlord. I basically said that either [Roommate] could not be allowed back in the house or I was leaving, and I would convince the rest to leave, too. After our talk, the landlord decided to have a talk with [Roommate] about how he had breached the rental agreement by smoking pot and basically ban him from returning to the house.

Of course, I was still frustrated enough with my landlord’s failure to act sooner that I kept up my search for a new place and moved out not too long after that, anyway.