What Would You Do If Your Roommate Forgot His Keys in the Apartment Door?

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I have not had the best of days today.

The cause

I slept in a strange position last night and in the morning I was kissed awake by the mother of all headaches -- probably caused by a tight neck, as per usual...

I tried to massage the pain away.

- It didn't work.

I tried to stretch the muscles in my neck.

- It didn't help.

And finally, I decided to just ignore the pain. 😬

- That last ditch effort kind of worked, but my mental performance and my mood were not the best they have ever been throughout the day... Nevertheless, I managed to leave the bed and the house eventually and do my work.

The consequence

After about three hours of working outside and covering a good distance, I returned home. When I wanted to enter the house which I live in, I realised that my keys were missing.

My first thought was that I must have lost them while working outside. In my mind I thought about where they could have fallen out of my pocket.

I rang the doorbell -- hoping that my two roommates would still be home.

- Nobody answered.

Then I tried to call them. One didn't answer her phone at all, the other did answer and hung up immediately on me without saying anything...

I thought that might have been an accident and tried calling her again.

- No, it wasn't an accident. She hung up on me again without saying a word...

The search

I tried to think about where the keys may be now and how I could get into the apartment. I was sure that I had my keys when I left the apartment, because I forgot something and had to go back up and get it before I actually left.

Therefore, I concluded, I either forgot the keys in the door or in the apartment when I went back up -- or I lost them during my outdoor work. I assumed it would be highly unlikely that I forgot my keys in the door as one of my roommates would probably have seen the key stuck in the door lock when they left the apartment and notified me about that.

I was faced with choosing between two options:

  1. Searching the keys along the way which I went during my 3-hour-trip outside. That meant searching the key on a path through the city of around 8 km or 5 miles. The chance of finding the key is virtually zero if I lost it while working outside.

  2. Getting into the apartment and searching the key there, probably not finding it and then searching it outside (as in option 1) with almost zero chance of finding it.

I was already making an estimate of the cost for exchanging the locks in all the doors I had keys to as I was pretty sure that I would not ever see my keys again.

Getting in

As I had to get to a bathroom soon and there is one in the basement of our house that I could sneak into for emergencies, I rang the doorbell of one of my neighbours. Luckily, she was at home -- even though most other people went outside to watch the soccer game. After she opened the door, I went upstairs to our shared apartment and to my surprise, my keys were in the door lock. I was extremely happy to find them there and assumed that my roommates must have been in a rush and somehow they must not have seen my keys when they left. I couldn't quite understand how that was possible, but ok, it must have been like that.

I notified my roommates in our group chat that the matter had resolved itself.

To my surprise one of my roommates answered:

Yeah, I left your keys hanging there

You saw that I forgot my keys when you left the apartment and didn't think it was a good idea to notify me about that? You thought it was a good idea to leave the apartment with the keys hanging in the door lock? Anyone could have entered. Anyone could have stolen whatever they want out of our apartment. I could have searched my keys outside for miles if I had noticed not having them earlier. And then you didn't even answer your fvcking phone for two fvcking seconds to tell me about that when I called you?!

Needless to say, I'm fvcking pissed about the whole thing. I want to point out that my roommate is not stupid. She is quite intelligent. Usually, at least.

Your opinion

So what do you think about this incident?

Was it malicious behaviour on her part? Or am I making this a bigger deal than it actually is?

I kind of think it shows her egotism and disregard for other people in general or for me in particular.

If she had forgotten her keys, I would have called her to tell her about it and would have made a plan how to give her the keys. I used to think that that's what anyone would do for another. Apparently, I was wrong...

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Comments

Your roommate must have thought or trusted that no one would dare to open your room so she left the key hanging there. I hope nothing was lost though :)

If I were her, I'd probably have locked the door and placed the key anywhere safe and would have called or sent you a message to inform you about it :) That's what my neighbor did when I left my keys hanging on the lock :)

$ 0.03
3 years ago

That would have made a lot more sense than what she did. 👍

$ 0.00
3 years ago

It would have... I hope you won't forget your key again :)

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Apparently that's bad on one hand and on the other hand not so good. Maybe you should just try to call her to order and let her know things are not done that way. Hope you rebuild the relationship stronger again, over look it

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Thank you for your input. You're definitely right that at best, what she did wasn't good -- even if it wasn't malicious in intent...

The surprising thing is that we had such a talk just the night before. Therefore I assumed we cleared up everything. 🙈

$ 0.00
3 years ago

This happened to me already.. I locked the door and left the keys hanging . .I forgot to take it out.. I just realized when I reached our destination and felt that the keys weren't inside my pocket.. Good thing someone was at home that day and I WhatsApp him to check if the keys were outside the gate hanging, or maybe I dropped them. Then he replied that it was still hanging on our gate. 😅 I was grateful that nobody dared to take them out before I notified him.. I was really nervous that day because for sure, my boss will gonna get mad at me 🤣

$ 0.00
3 years ago

That was very lucky. Especially if you have work keys on the same key chain. It can be a very, very expensive mistake to lose such a key. 🙈

$ 0.00
3 years ago

It really was. 🤣

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I always forget my keys on the house. 😆 Luckily when I do my roomies would have left mine, on my hanged phants outside the door same way when they do. It was kinda become a nature that when It happens I would just find it on the hanged phants or the hanged umbrella. Well, we have different roomies! 😆

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I much prefer yours. 😅

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Whats good is that my roomies are my friends from college. Hahah so we kinda get along really well.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Ummmh. There is always a reason for whatever we do. I'm sure they have their reasons. But on a serious note. Curtesy demands that they try all means to get the key to you when they noticed you forgot it. But seriously it depends on the relationship you guys have. My advice: Have a conversation with them, let them know you are not to cool with what they did. Hear them out a d let them know that anyone could have entered and looted your properties.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Time to have a fireplace "family" talk. The best of intentions with a very wrong delivery that could end up causing more headaches. Yep, I think a sit-down good talk is needed to understand her logic. Giving the keys to the neighbor and calling you would be an option but she may have a good reason for doing what she did (maybe not). Since you are sharing an apt, would be good to talk it out rather than keeping it buried inside. May end up exploding one day with everyone regretting it.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

That's definitely great advice. I will talk to her about it. I wasn't sure if I was overreacting, but it seems other people don't think what she did was quite alright, too.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Unless you are very certain you live in a very safe neighborhood, i.e. leaving the door opened all day is nothing to worry about, then leaving a key stuck on the door is not a good practice even in times of emergencies. It's good to find out why she did what she did. At least you understand her then. If it's not acceptable, ask her if she could think of a safer option. Just my two cents worth. I think now that you've cooled down, the talk will be much better. Hahaha...now I see another good point in using ReadCash. Lol.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Haha, yeah, I start using read.cash more and more as therapy sessions or to vent off some steam. 😅

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Lol. That probably will apply to me one day. I'm a curious creature and a busybody. Do share with us her reasoning in another article. The mystery is killing me. 😅 Glad to get reconnected with you. I'm very happy to be back at ReadCash.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

That's why she didn't answer your call, because she knew she'd done something foolish? If you have good relations with her, I'm not quite sure why she did what she did. If you don't, then it's understandable that she was petty and wanted you to suffer.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I believe you're right and she was actually behaving petty. 👍

We don't have the best relationship. I guess that I get on her nerves and she does some things that I just find outrageous. 🙈

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Then you have your answer why she did that. I guess if you are to remain roommates for the foreseeable future, you just have to take precautions not to put you in a situation where you will need her help or some such thing because I doubt she will ever come to your rescue. HOWEVER, when you can be kind to her, do it. It's like killing her with kindness.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

The killing her with kindness aspect is an interesting angle. 👍

$ 0.00
3 years ago

if killing her with kindness doesn't work try a pillow while she is sleeping. It works in the movies.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Hahaha. 🤣👍👍👍

$ 0.00
3 years ago