Landlord slammed for 'joking' about taking packages from tenants who can't pay rent on TikTok

There’s been many heroes of the coronavirus pandemic so far: health workers and Britney Spears, for starters.

But there’s also been villains too: celebrities who aren’t Britney Spears and landlords, to name a few.

One landlord who seems to have become an internet villain overnight is Abbe Awosanya, who posted a TikTok video joking about withholding the packages from her tenants who were behind on their rent.

In the video, which has been viewed over 200,000 times, Awosanya dances while captions flash up on the screen. They read:

My tenant is late on rent.

And is avoiding me… But has money to order.

So I take all their packages

Until they pay up. Im so petty.

She is seen opening the door for packages and collecting a pile of deliveries, which presumably don't belong to her.

After the footage went viral, Awosanya told BuzzFeed's David Mack that she was only joking.

But lots of people on TikTok and Twitter aren’t laughing...

As BuzzFeed notes, obstructing mail is an offence in the US. But Awosanya has insisted that all the packages seen in the video were hers, so that's one good thing.

Speaking to BuzzFeed, she implied it’s unfair that people don’t think about the financial hardships of landlords.

It’s nice that yall only care about renters like landlords don’t have bills.

Compassion should be for everyone because we are all going through the pandemic together.

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 did clarify that she “would understand” if her tenants couldn’t pay rent now, because of the pandemic. This comes as the US prepares for mass rent strikes and politicians introduce legislation that proposes cancelling rent for those tho can't pay right now.

The moral of this tale is probably that, if you're a landlord, you should be very careful about what you post on social media right now. Because people might not see the funny side.