When I was in music college, I subletted my bedroom of my apartment that I shared with roommates out to a student who was just doing the Summer session while I was taking the Summer off to be with my family and work.
I rented it out to a nice kid, and I left all of my furniture there for him to use. He gave me the security deposit, and all was well.
At the end of the Summer he left and went back home the day before I got back into town. When I got back, everything looked ok and I was going to mail him his deposit back.
Within a day or 2, I went into my closet to take out my VHS tapes that I stored there for the Summer, and I was going to watch one of them with a friend. It was a drum instructional video made by the drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
When I popped it into the VCR, one of my other videos came on instead. I popped the video out, and it had the correct title that was stickered on the tape, so it threw me off for a minute. Did somebody tape over my video? Then I looked at the title tag stickered on to the tape, and it was on a little crooked. Then I went into my box, and sure enough, the case of the movie that came on instead of my drum video was empty.
It turned out that he was a big Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, and he stole my drum video, but took the tag off it and put it on another VHS tape of mine, and put it in the drum video case. He was probably thinking that by the time I noticed, he'd be long gone.
I still had his $320 security deposit that I hadn't mailed out yet.
Shortly after, there was a message on my answering machine from him, and for me to call him back. He was obviously calling to get his deposit back.
Because of his act of theft and deception after I nicely rented my room to him with all of my furniture, TV, and everything, I didn't feel too compelled to give him back his deposit.
Instead, my current roommate and I decided to fabricate a crazy story, and my roommate would call him back and tell it to him. To maximize the entertainment, I went to Radio Shack and bought one of those $4 recording microphones that you attach to the phone, and connects to a tape recorder. Then we could share the laugh with our friends.
She called him acting like she just called to say Hi and chat. After some initial small talk with him, she happened to nonchalantly mention that things got a little crazy that week. Naturally, his response was: “oh yeah? Why?”
She then proceeded to tell him that I noticed that my drum video was gone, and that I accused her of taking it, and I went ballistic on her and beat her up until the cops came and arrested me. I was now sitting in jail for the incident awaiting my day in court, and she was going to testify against me.
His response consisted mainly of “oh yeah?!” “wow!” And “he's gonna feel stupid when he finds his tape after causing all of that trouble.” After elaborating the details of the story with him, she brought the discussion back to small talk and concluded the conversation.
When they were saying bye and wishing each other the best in their respective futures, he added: “and lock him up!” And that was that. He never did bring up his security deposit after hearing that story, and that was the last communication with him.
He admitted to nothing, and seemed to be ok with the incident that was told to him, with no hint of remorse or guilt about his theft being the catalyst that led to my supposed violent assault on my roommate, which supposedly led to my incarceration.
With how it all ended, his stupidity gave us a laugh which made us glad that he took my video, and I kept his security deposit which wouldve been enough for him to buy 10 copies of that video.
I probably still have that taped conversation in a storage box of cassettes somewhere. After 22 years, maybe it's time to find and listen to it again, and laugh about it with friends over some beers.