23-year-old Brianni Bonner, originally from Chicago and now based in Dallas, Texas, recently had her life flipped upside-down when her apartment complex accidentally evicted her.
The mother of six-year-old Jace and 4-year-old Avi returned home from work at Walmart to discover her key no longer worked in her door.
A maintenance worker appeared in his van and threatened to report Bonner for attempting to get back in her apartment.
Bonner stated:
"[He] tells me I'm going to go to jail, because it's against the law for me to get back into my apartment."
As it turned out, the Riviera Apartments meant to evict the occupants of apartment 1712 on the first floor, rather than Bonner's apartment 1721 directly above it.
Maintenance was directed to enter the apartment and remove any leftover personal effects, so they could clean and freshly paint the space before a new tenant moved in.
But in the mix-up of the apartment numbers, the maintenance workers instead entered Bonner's apartment, threw away all of her family's possessions, cleaned, painted the walls and changed the locks on the door.
While Bonner was still at work, most of her and her sons' possessions were stolen. What little was left was thrown into the apartment complex dumpsters, including Bonner's prescription medication for PTSD and anxiety.
You can watch more about the eviction here:
After Bonner realized what had happened, she reached out to Riviera Apartments, who essentially refused to help at first.
They did admit her back into the apartment, which no longer felt like home to the single mother. They were only willing to offer compensation after further requests were made.
When Bonner finally reached the apartment complex management, she was surprised how little they were willing to do for her.
Bonner said:
"She told me, all they would be able to do for me is to give me a $200 Visa debit card."
"It was definitely a slap in the face."
Being a 23-year-old single mother who moved to Dallas for a fresh start, Bonner felt like she was going to have to start all over again.
Bonner explained:
"I feel like everything was taken from me. It doesn't feel like home anymore."
"I can't even explain to you the depression it's caused."
Bonner did end up setting up a GoFundMe to assist in the purchasing of new necessities for her sons.
The campaign raised more than 50,000 dollars, over 30,000 more than Bonner had hoped for.
You can see more about the money raised and Bonner's gratitude here:
People were fully in support of Bonner's family and aghast at what the complex had done.
But some also pointed out the campaign was enabling big companies to continue their poor treatment of their consumers, with no intention of correcting their mistakes.
It's clear in this situation who was at fault, even if it was not malicious, and surely more could have been done to make the family comfortable.
Brianni Bonner is now seeking legal counsel and more than likely will seek a monetary settlement from the complex to help improve her and her sons' living situation.
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