I (22F) am subleasing an apartment & yesterday the maintenance guy (~45M) came to repair our sink that was leaking from a rusted out pipe. When he came to fix it I was home & I talked to him a little & got his number & texted him a video of the hole. I went to the living room for a sec & then he left. I went in the kitchen and noticed that my new favorite knife (a Victorinox rounded steak knife, not the worlds greatest knife but a nice quality knife) was sitting on the sink edge (where I left it) but now had gunk & rust on it and the serrations were very dulled and bent a little. He had used my knife to saw through very tough & sticky gorilla glue plumbing tape… without asking for literally any other tool in the house or going and getting his own… and legitimately ruining the knife. I obviously get upset bc he ruined something of mine and put whatever type of chemicals on it from the piping and the tape. I send him a text saying “Hi sorry to bother but did you use my knife to cut the plumbing? This is my favorite knife and now the serrations are dulled and there is rust and plumbing gunk on it… I would appreciate the funds for the replacement since it is now ruined and gross” which wasn’t like the most professional thing but overall I don’t think it was rude or anything. I also asked one of my roommates who has been living here for longer if the text was okay and I let her read it. She said yes. (This us important later) He answered with “I’m very sorry about that. I just tried to cut that tape.” My roommate said to just let it go/not prod anymore and so I didn’t respond to the text and went on with my day. Then he came back later in the day and went to the kitchen and he asked “is this your knife?” I said “yes, but I’m getting a new one you can use that one if you need” and then he offered the money for it, I said that if he wanted to just $10 is fine ($14 knife) and I took the money And said thank you and moved on with it and felt that that was fair. Later my roommates (22&23F) both tell me that they are upset with me for asking and taking the money because he probably isn’t payed well (assumption) and that he is probably “risking his life with ice around going to buy pipes for us at Home Depot”(his English isn’t great and is a Mexican immigrant I think who has been working for this landlord for at least 3 years)… which like has to be at least a micro aggression assuming this adult man who does Maintenance for multiple buildings and units in Chicago doesn’t have $10 to reimburse For something HE decided to use that wasn’t his! My roommates said money isn’t everything in life and I should have refused to take the money. I also was very kind with him the rest of the day and thanked him profusely for the work and he did not seem offended or avoidant of me at all. It seemed like he understood that he shouldn’t have used someone else’s stuff (but that’s my biased opinion I guess). So basically am I the asshole for texting him and taking the money?
He is lucky it was a $10 knife not a $200 knife. I think that was a good lesson. He will use his own tools now not a kitchen knife nta
I was thinking about that! He had no idea its value! Also he did not make any effort to clean it or anything after using it which was bold in my opinion but idk
Totally unprofessional!
How’s he gonna clean it if the sink is taken apart?
NTA and your roommates need to mind their own business. Im sure if it was their prop they would have done the same
I have multiple knives worth well over $2000 combined. My most expensive knife was $500. If someone used one to do PLUMBING work, I would absolutely lose it. I rarely even let other people LOOK at my knives.
Seriously. I got my partner a nice knife from Japan as a birthday gift. That would be much more expensive to replace
Especially seeing that little victorinox symbol on it if you see that on a knife just leave the knife alone. They go from being tens of dollars to hundreds of dollars very quickly
NTA
As a person who has had similar assumptions made about me, I can tell you that – yes, I find your roommates’ assumption offensive and no different than that of the folks who use it as an excuse ignore the law.
You nicely asked this person to take responsibility for their action, and they nicely did so. He had made a mistake and made it right with you. These are good things!
INFO: So your roomates were okay with the text until they noticed that the man was an immigrant and then the came up with racist sterio types (that he is underpaid, has no money to give back, risking live and so on) and tried to guilt trip you because of their assumptions?
I checked with the roommate that was home about the text and she read it and said yes to sending it. Later she said she read it too fast and didn’t really read it. They have had the same Maintance guy for years as they have lived here longer but they do not know much about him from what I know other than his English isn’t great and he is a Mexican immigrant, so everything else is assumed about him, yes. Later on both roommates expressed they were upset by my actions and it seemed mostly felt uncomfortable because they didn’t want it reflected poorly on them. Again he did not seem upset with me after and talked with me about the repairs after and I helped him out and thanked him a lot.
NTA Your roommates are making assumptions about him based on his ethnicity, which is actually a bit condescending. The maintenance man is a grown man who took responsibility for his actions. He may or may not be an illegal immigrant. That’s irrelevant.
PS. I have been an immigrant in several countries and am an immigrant in the country I live in now. I don’t know how many times I have been treated in a condescending manner. I am female and have an accent. I once
called a local tree nursery to ask about having a tree cut down. I expected to get an estimate or be asked about the tree. No, the person on the phone replied flippantly, “Well, how much would it cost for you to come clean my house?” EXCUSE ME??? So unprofessional but based on stereotypes. That’s what your roommates are doing.
Yeah it didn’t sit right with me.. I want to be fully aware and empathetic of the struggles for immigrants in the US, especially with the intensity of ICE here in Chicago, but also I am going to treat him like I would any other person unless the circumstances show themselves otherwise.
Your maintenance guy used and ruined your thing. You told him and he made it right by paying and you accepted. This sounds, you know, fine.
The fact that your roommates think you shouldn’t have done it is fine, but irrelevant. The fact that he may face extra challenges because of the climate may be relevant, or not, but unless he voices a request to be treated differently, you’re under no obligation to consider doing so.
Your patronizing roommates are the AHs here.
NTA
After he misused your knife, you treated him as a professional and he responded as a professional. You pointed out his error and he compensated you, as he should.
Your roommates want you to treat him as an someone who needs special consideration because $10 might be too much for him to handle because he is an immigrant.
I think he would rather be treated as a professional.