A mum who was asked to dogsit at her son's house for five days has left the man outraged - as he claims she decided to paint the walls, hang up her own pictures, and toss his dog's bed into the mud outside.
The man, who posted his story online anonymously, said that he and his wife have recently moved into their first house together, and had needed his mum to look after their Great Dane while they went to a music festival.
He had paid his mum in advance for her services because he claimed she "needed the money", but when he returned home, he was horrified to find that she had completely wrecked the place.
The man also alleged his mum's boyfriend had a spare house key made while he was away, and also believes the pair may have pinched some of his and his wife's belongings.
Get the news you want straight to your inbox. Sign up for a Mirror newsletter here.
In a post on Reddit, he claimed: "Last week, my wife and I travelled to a music festival for about 5-6 days. I hired my mum (she needed the money, I needed a dogsitter) to take care of things while we were away for an agreed-upon price.
"We cleaned the house prior to leaving, left her with strict instructions for what to do with our Great Dane, stocked the fridge, wrote the wifi and desktop passwords down for her, and pre-paid her so she’d have some money.
"Fast forward to yesterday, we arrived to find lots of things had been done to our home and it sent me into a fit. My wife and I are 30-somethings who just bought our very first house together, and it was bought remodelled and to our liking."
The man then listed everything that had been done to his home without his permission.
He wrote: "Every wall in the house had been painted with a colour that did not match our normal paint scheme. The job was also incomplete and patchy in most areas. The previous paint was totally fine, and only seven months old!
"[There were missing electrical outlet covers, [and I] still don’t know why. [There were over] 100 cigarette butts in my rose potted plant out the front, and several items were missing or moved.
"Pictures [had been] hung [and there were] holes in walls. We did not intend on hanging anything yet until we decided on where we wanted things.
"A six-foot ladder was laid on vinyl records, destroying three of them in the process, our indoor dog bed was thrown in the mud, [and there was] duct tape found over the motion detectors and Ring doorbell.
"[A] spare house key [was] made by my mum’s boyfriend. Now I feel like I must change my locks.
"Not to mention the whole reason I needed her in the first place: the dog! He'd been left out back seemingly the entire time, barely fed, and his dog bed is caked in mud and rain - I feel it necessary to toss it in the bin now."
The man claimed he "lost his cool" with his mum and her boyfriend over the damage they had done to his house - but his mum believes he was just being "ungrateful".
Now, the man is planning on changing his locks and cutting off all contact with his mum.
He added: "Naturally, I lost my head and my cool. I immediately started yelling about the fact that this is not their home. It was not okay for them to treat our home like it was theirs, doing whatever flight-or-fancy entered their brains.
"The entire time, my mother refused to accept responsibility for the actions, began to cry, and called me 'ungrateful'. I feel like I'm being gaslit by my own mother for being upset.
"Our relationship is now tarnished even further than it was, and my wife doesn't want her back here. The scenario has played in my mind countless times and I feel completely awful about yelling at her, but it's the complete lack of accepting responsibility on her part that has me fuming, on top of acting like nothing was even amiss."
In a later update, he said: "I have completely ghosted my mum and blocked her phone number. I have changed the locks and begun the process of fixing my home out of pocket. My dog is back to his chipper self and is scheduled for a veterinarian visit tomorrow."
Commenters on the Reddit post were all on the man's side, with many of them suggesting he do more digging into what happened while he was away - such as chatting to neighbours or more closely inspecting his house.
One person said: "Covering the ring doorbell was to keep you from knowing who was in your house. I’d talk to the neighbors. Pronto. What did they see?"
As another wrote: "If you won’t sue her, send her an invoice to cover all the damage to your walls, the cost for hiring painters, the missing items, a new dog bed, a vet check up, missing items, any damage to your cameras, a locksmith, etc.
"This makes me so f***ing angry. She’d be cut out of my life forever. What a violation.
While someone else stated: "You most certainly need to change your locks and install more cameras inside and outside. Something has been going on in your home."
Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at yourmirror@trinitymirror.com .
