‘Where is the fridge?': Shameless tenant goes viral on TikTok after brazenly stealing landlord's whitegoods

Sky News AU

29-07-2025

An anonymous landlord has revealed a truly bizarre WhatsApp exchange with their tenant after discovering several whitegoods in their furnished rental had disappeared.
The renter, identified only as 'Katie', had lived in the partially furnished apartment, which included essential whitegoods such as a fridge, washing machine and dishwasher.
Upon moving out of the apartment, Katie sent a polite WhatsApp message to the landlord and said she 'left the keys on the counter'.
The exchange that followed has since gone viral on social media after the unwitting landlord realised Katie had loaded up her moving van with the landlord's own whitegoods.
'Hi, just wanted to say I've left the keys on the counter. Thanks for everything,' Katie said in her goodbye text message to the landlord.
Minutes later, the landlord arrived at the property and got a nasty shock after realising about $2000 in whitegoods had disappeared.
"Hi Katie. Just been to the property. Where is the fridge?" the landlord asked.
Seemingly unfazed, Katie casually replied: 'Oh, I took it. Same with the washer and the dishwasher.'
Taken aback by her response, the mystified landlord replied:
'Sorry? Those weren't yours to take. They were part of the tenancy.'
Katie then attempted to justify the brazen theft, arguing: 'Yeah but I used them every day. I assumed they were mine?'
The landlord then insisted the items be returned, but Katie continued to dodge requests to give the whitegoods back to their rightful owner.
'That's a bit awkward now. They're already in my new place,' Katie replied.
The increasingly furious demanded she bring the gadgets back because 'they don't belong to you'.
'I genuinely thought they did. Like, I used them. They felt like mine,' Katie insisted.
Incensed, the landlord replied: 'Katie. You've taken items worth over a grand. This isn't a grey area.'
Remarkably, Katie even suggested the landlord make a false insurance claim for the items she admitted to stealing.
'Can't you just claim it on insurance or something? I'm not trying to cause drama,' she said.
However, the landlord gave her one more opportunity to do the right thing as he accused her of 'theft'.
'If I don't have them back by Friday, I'll have to treat it as theft. This is serious,' he said.
Katie ended the conversation with: 'Wow. Over a few appliances? Bit extreme, don't you think?'
It is unclear how the dispute was ultimately resolved.
The viral WhatsApp exchange was shared online by British real estate TikToker Jack Rooke.
His video has been viewed more than 770,000 times, with hundreds of commenters weighing in on 'the tenant from hell'.
'Good on her, at least she got her deposit worth back,' one commenter joked.
Several other landlords took to the comment section and shared their own horror stories of tenants stealing furniture and other items when they vacated a rental.
'My last tenant left with the fridge. Exactly the same conversation,' one landlord wrote.
'Our tenant took our bed,' a second unlucky landlord added.
'Tenants do this often,' a third landlord chimed in.
'Sometimes (tenants) go away with curtains and radiators.
'Not all do, but enough to be noticed.'
One landlord even thwarted an attempt by their tenant to sell the landlord's own cooker on an online marketplace.
'We had this happen,' the landlord wrote.
'A tenant wanted to advertise the cooker as she didn't need it in her new place, the cooker which was listed on the inventory and was there when she moved in.'