Group of Irish J1 Students trash San Fran rental house, then leave the country

jackal · 22-09-2014 01:13PM

Ugh, when I was on a j1 a good few years ago now, we did something similar to these lads in the last few days of the rental. Not quite as bad, no holes in walls or anything, but we left the place in a complete tip.

Not proud of it at all, I still get embarrassed when I think of it and wish I had a bit more cop on back then. It was a combination of group mentality, the fact that the people who had originally paid the deposit and met the landlord were all gone and that we had been living like animals for 3 months. Our place was packed full, approximately 8 young "adults" in a place made for 3 people, and you lose perspective after living like that for a while.

Shameful in retrospect, at the time it was all just "a laugh", and though I knew it was wrong I was not mature enough to stop it.

Help!!!! · 22-09-2014 01:24PM

mandrake04 wrote: »

This is nothing new it happens frequently in Oz especially Perth and is often referred to as savage craic.

I lived with a lot of Aussies in London back in the 90's & seen a lot of properties destroyed having weekend rave parties. Not just Aussies though Kiwi's, Yanks, Saffas....... Not condoning what was done but its usually young people letting off steam & its not just guys, girls can be everyway as bad

Egginacup · 22-09-2014 02:12PM

Danger781 wrote: »

http://www.thejournal.ie/san-francisco-apartment-1681381-Sep2014/

Disgraceful behavior. The house has been well and truly destroyed. How can you be okay with doing that?

Mod

No names or links to any personal social media pages please.

The woman states that it was "an act of terrorism"

FFS, is EVERYTHING terrorism now? Your house is vandalised....terrorism! Your bike is stolen.....terrorism! Kids egg your car..terrorism!!!

Brendan Flowers · 22-09-2014 02:18PM

Are news reports allowed to reveal personal information like they did in this video? They have no proof that the named person was involved in the destruction yet an internet witch-hunt has started on places like Boards and Reddit, with some keyboard warriors even emailing the guys employer, college and relatives.

zarquon · 22-09-2014 02:25PM

So their story has now changed over the course of the weekend. First the official response from one of the cohort stated that subletters did the damage now a further investigations has revealed that they state the damage was done during an out of control party. Far too many inconsistencies and the it's clear the group in case tried to abscond without taking responsibility by skipping the country which was a sh!tty thing to do and now it's come back to bite them as the controversy has followed them home which has no doubt caught the group completely off guard.

It's a good lesson to all that skipping out on your mess does not make you untouchable. In the modern social media world, it#s a very small place and situations like this can follow you around like a bad smell for a long time so the lesson to all in similiar scenarios is think before you act.

Remmy · 22-09-2014 02:32PM

the_monkey wrote: »

Have CBS removed the report ?

Doesn't play for me on any device ...

I wonder did someone get their Daddy to lawyer up

Menas · 22-09-2014 02:32PM

Minister Charlie Flanagan joins the condemnation of the students.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/condemnation-of-house-vandalism-by-irish-students-288003.html

Menas · 22-09-2014 02:33PM

Egginacup wrote: »

The woman states that it was "an act of terrorism"

FFS, is EVERYTHING terrorism now? Your house is vandalised....terrorism! Your bike is stolen.....terrorism! Kids egg your car..terrorism!!!

Hardly fair to attack the victim of this?

kneemos · 22-09-2014 02:42PM

zarquon wrote: »

SO there story has now changed over the course of the weekend. First the official response from one of the cohort stated that subletters did the damage now a further investigations has revealed that they state the damage was done during an out of control party. Far too many inconsistencies and the it's clear the group in case tried to abscond without taking responsibility by skipping the country which was a sh!tty thing to do and now it's come back to bite them as the controversy has followed them home which has no doubt caught the group completely off guard.

It's a good lesson to all that skipping out on your mess does not make you untouchable. In the modern social media world, it#s a very small place and situations like this can follow you around like a bad smell for a long time so the lesson to all in similiar scenarios is think before you act.

We're lucky to have such consciences moral guardians?

Donald73 · 22-09-2014 04:24PM

I saw that the Sunday World named a few of them. Hopefully their parents read it, are more decent than their children seem to be and make sure the lady is reimbursed for the damage. Pure scum doing that damage.

ZeitgeistGlee · 22-09-2014 05:50PM

The claim the party occurred a few days before they left and it was outsiders who did the damage sounds like bull**** as well, if it hadn't been them why didn't they try to at least clean up the condoms/panties/debris given they would've had a few days?

kneemos wrote: »

We're lucky to have such consciences moral guardians?

As opposed to the likes of yourself kneemos who minimized their actions and falsely attributed them to non-existent parties? Much better I suppose they aren't made to face up to the repercussions of their actions and take responsibility for the harm they caused an innocent party like adults.

zarquon · 22-09-2014 05:59PM

kneemos wrote: »

We're lucky to have such consciences moral guardians?

Morally i could never do what they did. If my morals upsets you then that speaks volumes about you. For someone who is such a proponent of this behaviour who purports to not know the culprits in question i would dread the thought of renting to you if you think this behaviour is in any way acceptable.

I find it very strange that you are so vehemently trying to defend the behaviour in any way. I've had the misfortune of renting to someone once who did hundreds of euros worth of damage and still expected his full deposit back. He seemed genuinely shocked when i told him that the deposit would partially cover the damage and that's the whole purpose of a security deposit. He abused me over the phone for weeks trying to recover his deposit and once i had the invoices for the damage and told him to speak to his solicitor about needing to cover the deficit he still owed me, i never heard from him again.

Some tenants are a PITA. I'd wager that anyone who vigourously defends such poor behaviour from tenants has a high probabiliy of also being a poor tenant. Either that or the defenders happen to live under a bridge

22-09-2014 06:21PM

I can't see why this is causing so much outrage, you'd assume that it's the first time that a house was trashed by those renting it. This happens every day of the week all over the world and really should not be considered new.

cookie24 · 22-09-2014 06:40PM

Just saw this on the news, and after all the press it was getting, I must say I am feeling very underwhelmed. I've seen worse in Corrib Village.

A few bad things, such as banisters and hole in wall. Mainly superficial damage. Social media gone mad and faux-outrage has meant this has gotten far more attention than it deserves.

They should still pay though.

rosedream · 22-09-2014 06:42PM

Only just after seeing the pictures of the house being trashed on RTE news just now...I mean jesus when I first heard about this I didn't even look up about it because I assumed it was just an overreaction, but in all fairness that house is look like it literally demolished!
I mean it doesn't matter what age you are, you would want to be some very spoiled, self-entitled brat, or either someone with severe mental health issues to leave the house in that state and not have the maturity to own up to what you have done.

Mardy Bum · 22-09-2014 06:47PM

cookie24 wrote: »

Just saw this on the news, and after all the press it was getting, I must say I am feeling very underwhelmed. I've seen worse in Corrib Village.

A few bad things, such as banisters and hole in wall. Mainly superficial damage. Social media gone mad and faux-outrage has meant this has gotten far more attention than it deserves.

They should still pay though.

Have you had to pay for it?

cookie24 · 22-09-2014 06:50PM

Mardy Bum wrote: »

Have you had to pay for it?

I have, for a few things. I'm just happy a witch hunt around social media didn't happen. Ever make any mistakes?

Mardy Bum · 22-09-2014 06:55PM

cookie24 wrote: »

I have, for a few things. I'm just happy a witch hunt around social media didn't happen. Ever make any mistakes?

My comment was in relation to your underwhelming comment. The place was destroyed. It would costs thousands to fix that up. There is a serious amount of glass broken, the staircase needs to be replaced, possible structural damage with the various holes amongst other things. Your comment only reinforces the idea that this is somehow acceptable as they didn't set the place on fire.

cookie24 · 22-09-2014 07:01PM

Mardy Bum wrote: »

My comment was in relation to your underwhelming comment. The place was destroyed. It would costs thousands to fix that up. There is a serious amount of glass broken, the staircase needs to be replaced, possible structural damage with the various holes amongst other things. Your comment only reinforces the idea that this is somehow acceptable as they didn't set the place on fire.

Not acceptable, but definitely blown way out of proportion.

And 1000's of damage. Possibly. But deserving of international news? Surly not.

El Weirdo · 22-09-2014 07:04PM

cookie24 wrote: »

Not acceptable, but definitely blown way out of proportion.

And 1000's of damage. Possibly. But deserving of international news? Surly not.

It isn't international news. It was reported on local news in San Francisco, then picked up by media outlets here as the alleged perpetrators are Irish.

cloud493 · 22-09-2014 07:36PM

How did this get on the news? The landlord came in, saw it was trashed then decided to call the news people or whatever?

Is disgusting though, bit late for excuses after they scarpered. Hope they don't get back into the states, that'll teach them actions have consequence.

UCDVet · 22-09-2014 07:44PM

SpaceTime wrote: »

It's not really splitting hairs. Immigrants usually intend to live somewhere for a considerable period of time. If you're just on a short term 90 day working visa, you're a visitor.

According to the definition of the word immigrant found on dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/immigrant), they certainly meet the criteria of being 'immigrants'.

You're using the word 'usually' which means your own use acknowledges that not all immigrants will intend to live somewhere for a considerable period of time.

You think the word 'visitor' is more appropriate. Fair enough. But according to Google (define: visitor)

a person visiting someone or somewhere, especially socially or as a tourist.

Certainly they were 'visiting' somewhere. I'm not sure that your choice of word is actually more appropriate though. In a literally sense, tourists in the US are NOT allowed to work.

Still, I do think we're splitting hairs. Whether you call them visitors, immigrants, or J1 visa holders, it's all the same in the context of our conversation. In the context of someone working in the department of immigration or whatever they have in the United States, I'm sure they've got clear and strict legal definitions and use them appropriately. But, my point is - don't rent to people from another country with no ties to the local place they are residing in who can trivially leave at any time, leaving the landlord with virtually no means of recourse.

ZeitgeistGlee · 22-09-2014 09:30PM

cloud493 wrote: »

How did this get on the news? The landlord came in, saw it was trashed then decided to call the news people or whatever?

Local news stations in the US operates fairly differently to here, it's more akin to a local paper than what we'd consider a news channel. I imagine word got out in the locality and one of the local reporters thought it would make a catchy human interest piece.

mandrake04 · 22-09-2014 10:03PM

UCDVet wrote: »

According to the definition of the word immigrant found on dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/immigrant), they certainly meet the criteria of being 'immigrants'.

If that's the case my parents emigrated to Portugal for 2 weeks.

OldMrBrennan83 · 22-09-2014 10:04PM

This post has been deleted.

Tail Docker · 22-09-2014 10:25PM

This is the new ISIS. Irish students In San francisco.
Terror-tenants.

Shakespeare's Sister · 22-09-2014 10:36PM

foggy_lad wrote: »

American students in action

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2520510/Michigan-State-University-Students-riot-Big-Ten-Championship-win-invite-Rose-Bowl-decades.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8880906/US-college-students-flip-TV-van-during-football-riot.html

http://uk.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/01/biggest-college-campus-riots-in-history/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2278928/Minnesota-high-school-placed-lockdown-cafeteria-food-fight-turned-huge-brawl-racial-tensions-black-Muslim-students.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/university-mississippi-students-riot-obama-election_n_2088176.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCKPnLv9GzE

Did someone say American students would never do this?

prizefighter · 22-09-2014 10:50PM

I think it is clear to most people that this case differs from a student house in Corrib or Maynooth because in this instance there was NO attempt to fix it and the perpetrators relied on their immediate departure to evade owning up to their crimes. If anything their imminent return to Ireland was the main factor for trashing the place. Ireland has a long tradition of emigration with a far flung diaspora that on the whole is seen as a positive thing but with stories like this it casts the nation in a bad light. Over-entitled idiots who have watched Project X and the Hangover way too many times aren't exactly the global face of Ireland that we should be hoping to perpetuate. I'm living in Melbourne and believe me, the tide of welcoming the Irish with open arms is most certainly turning. There is an air of innate suspicion and fear at the prospect of large groups of Irish 'lads' rolling into a bar in their GAA jersies. Real estate agents are also pretty wary to rent to groups of Irish people, it is a sad truth that boils down to a negative turn in our international persona.

zarquon · 22-09-2014 11:37PM

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I think this thread proves that it is quite and typical of Irish youth which is an indictment on our youth culture.

OldMrBrennan83 · 22-09-2014 11:40PM

This post has been deleted.

Group of Irish J1 Students trash San Fran rental house, then leave the country

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