Celebrities and landlords both continue to emerge as the online villains of the coronavirus pandemic.
One landlord over on TikTok is the most recent to catch the public’s ire. Abbe Awosanya posted a TikTok joking about withholding the package deliveries of her tenants who don’t pay rent. In the video, which has been viewed over 200,000 times, Awosanya dances to “Skechers” by DripReport. She first opens the door to receive an Amazon Prime package and chunks it on a pile of other package deliveries.
“My tenant is late on rent,” flashes the caption across the top of her video. “And is avoiding me… But has money to order.”
Awosanyais continues to dance with a series of filters on.
“So I take all their packages,” another caption reads. “Until they pay up. Im (sic) so petty.”
When speaking with BuzzFeed News, Awosanya said she was only joking, however, many who have seen the TikTok don’t find it funny.
One called landlords “a menace to society” upon watching the video.
“Imagine ordering essential items online for a loved one you know is struggling, only to see this video circulating of their landlord dancing over your purloined packages,” Twitter user @LiveNudeJulia wrote.
Another revealed they had experienced exactly what Awosanya was joking about.
“My landlord did this to me last month! Withheld access to my mail for weeks and subsequently couldn’t get my unemployment which is what I needed to pay my rent in the first place,” they said.
As BuzzFeed News notes, obstructing mail is a federal offense. When TikTok users pointed out that to Awosanya, she assured them all the packages seen in the video were hers.
“It’s nice that yall only care about renters like landlords don’t have bills,” she added. Awosanya expressed a similar sentiment when speaking with BuzzFeed News.
“Compassion should be for everyone because we are all going through the pandemic together,” she told the outlet via text. “”Honestly, in the past, I had this issue with other tenants and I wished I could do this to them because they were blatantly ignoring me. … Nothing to do with current tenants.”
She added that her tenants have been late to pay rent before and she “would understand” if they couldn’t pay rent now.
The majority of Americans support canceling rent, according to a poll, as millions can no longer afford it. Thousands are taking part in what may be the largest rent strike in decades.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) introduced legislation that would cancel rent in hopes of alleviating some of the financial pressures facing Americans as a result of the pandemic.
READ MORE:
- Everything you need to know about Rent Strike 2020
- Property manager allegedly illegally tracked tenant’s stimulus check
- Tenant sues property manager who allegedly tracked his stimulus check
- As tenants struggle to pay rent, landlords ask for sex instead
H/T BuzzFeed News
