An Airbnb guest in Lynchburg, Virginia who apparently fell in love with a piece of art he rented allegedly took it, The Washington Post reports.
Amy Corbett, the owner of the apartment, discovered that a drawing of a map hanging above the sofa had been replaced by a drawing of an airplane propeller.
“It freaked me out,” Corbett, who doesn’t live in the apartment but rents it out and sometimes uses it for work, told the outlet.
Surveillance footage shows a man taking a large item wrapped in a blanket outside the apartment around checkout time. Shortly thereafter, the man entered the apartment wearing different clothing and carrying the same hidden large item. Corbett considers the items to be works of art.
Corbett, who runs short-term rental company All Belong Co, shared her ordeal on TikTok, earning guests the nickname “The Airbnb Bandit”.
Some say the new artwork Corbett got is better than the map, while others speculate on why the guest allegedly pulled the switch in the first place.
As far as guests are concerned, he declined to answer Corbett’s inquiries. Corbett decides not to call the police – maps are inexpensive and have little sentimental value (if any).
So she turned to Airbnb, which ended up paying her $100 for the damage, while the guest also paid $25 and was removed from the short-term rental site. Corbett didn’t get the original map back, so she commissioned a local artist to paint a painting of the James River to replace it.
Corbett also raffled off the painting of an airplane propeller, raising nearly $1.5 billion to be donated to a housing instability nonprofit.
“It blows my mind that we can do something good for humanity,” Corbett told the Post.
— Ted Glazer
The “Airbnb bandit” post stole the painting and was replaced by another post that first appeared on The Real Deal.
