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Airbnb host has world riveted over stolen painting that was replaced inside her own home

Who is this Airbnb Bandit?

airbnb, airbnb dispute
@allbelongco/TikTok

How bizarre, how bizarre.

It should go without saying that it’s not cool to steal from your Airbnb. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t still happen.

However, when one Airbnb host recently discovered a guest had—for some strange reason—stolen one of her paintings, then replaced it with a completely different painting, she decided to make the best out of a very uncool situation by sharing the story on TikTok.

As a result, viewers got to witness an continuously unraveling, truly bizarre modern-day art heist.

Okay, let’s get into it.


"OK the weirdest thing just happened," host Amy Corbett says at the beginning of her video.

She then shows what the living room in the listing normally looks like—with a painting of a map hanging on a wall over a couch.

But when Corbett shows up to the unit, we see that it is definitely not a painting of a map hanging on a wall over a couch. Instead, there’s a painting of an orange airplane.

“I have never seen the picture before in my life!” Corbett exclaims in the video.

@allbelongco The weirdest thing a guest has ever done. #airbnb #airbnbstory #airbnbguest #airbnbthief #crazystory #story #fyp ♬ original sound - allbelong.co

Creeped out, she looks around the apartment to see if the oil painting is anywhere to be found. Nada. Zilch.

Needless to say, commenters had their theories. Several mentioned hearing similar stories involving the same painting, leading them to believe this was all part of some long and involved paint-swapping prank. Others went the more traditional route of assuming this guest was trying to cover up some damage inflicted to avoid fees. Others still thought this person was an artist trying to do some sort of clandestine self-promotion.

In a follow-up video, Corbett debunked those theories, saying that not only could that airplane image be found “all over the web,” but the wall it was hanging on was “pristine,” not to mention the fact that the original artwork was next to impossible to accidentally damage.

@allbelongco Replying to @exploration_of_love Let’s debunk some theories while we wait to hear from Airbnb… #airbnb #airbnbguest #fyp ♬ original sound - allbelong.co

As for whether or not this person had swapped out other paintings, Corbett has reached out to one of the guest’s previous hosts, who confirmed that it had not taken place there.

Corbett kept audiences in the loop with several follow-ups, including actual security footage of the guest caught in the act.

The video shows a man (now dubbed the Airbnb Bandit) walking from his car carrying the airplane painting. Next, he’s seen in a different-colored hoodie carrying out the map painting, which is bundled up in a blanket.

@allbelongco Camera footage doesn’t lie…🤷🏻‍♀️ #airbnbstory #airbnbguest #fyp #airbnb #airbnbthief #allbelongco #story ♬ original sound - allbelong.co

As if things couldn’t get any stranger, when Corbett sent an official claim through Airbnb about the artwork, the Airbnb Bandit did pay, but only a portion of what was asked. Then when she asked when he could pay the rest of it…he asked for a 5-star review.

Wow. Just…wow.

While the actual identity of this unusual art thief remains a mystery, Corbett is being reimbursed by Airbnb. Plus, she has decidedly made her “negative story into a positive one” by hiring a local artist to create a new painting to hang above her couch, one that features a waterfall view and the Jamestown River visible just outside the listing. Plus, she’s raffling off the airplane painting to raise funds for affordable housing in her area.

This might be one of the weirder Airbnb stories out there, but at least it has a pretty happy ending.


This article originally appeared on 4.30.23

Mel Robbins making a TED Talk.

Towards the end of The Beatles’ illustrious but brief career, Paul McCartney wrote “Let it Be,” a song about finding peace by letting events take their natural course. It was a sentiment that seemed to mirror the feeling of resignation the band had with its imminent demise.

The bittersweet song has had an appeal that has lasted generations, and that may be because it reflects an essential psychological concept: the locus of control. “It’s about understanding where our influence ends and accepting that some things are beyond our control,” Jennifer Chappell Marsh, a marriage and family therapist, told The Huffington Post. “We can’t control others, so instead, we should focus on our own actions and responses.”

This idea of giving up control (or the illusion of it) when it does us no good was perfectly distilled into two words that everyone can understand: "Let Them." This is officially known as the “Let Them” theory. Podcast host, author, motivational speaker and former lawyer Mel Robbins explained this theory perfectly in a vial Instagram video posted in May 2023.

“I just heard about this thing called the ‘Let Them Theory,’ I freaking love this,” Robbins starts the video.

“If your friends are not inviting you out to brunch this weekend, let them. If the person that you're really attracted to is not interested in a commitment, let them. If your kids do not want to get up and go to that thing with you this week, let them.” Robbins says in the clip. “So much time and energy is wasted on forcing other people to match our expectations.”

“If they’re not showing up how you want them to show up, do not try to force them to change; let them be themselves because they are revealing who they are to you. Just let them – and then you get to choose what you do next,” she continued.

The phrase is a great one to keep in your mental health tool kit because it’s a reminder that, for the most part, we can’t control other people. And if we can, is it worth wasting the emotional energy? Especially when we can allow people to behave as they wish and then we can react to them however we choose?

@melrobbins

Stop wasting energy on trying to get other people to meet YOUR expectations. Instead, try using the “Let Them Theory.” 💥 Listen now on the #melrobbinspodcast!! “The “Let Them Theory”: A Life Changing Mindset Hack That 15 Million People Can’t Stop Talking About” 🔗 in bio #melrobbins #letthemtheory #letgo #lettinggo #podcast #podcastepisode

How you respond to their behavior can significantly impact how they treat you in the future.

It’s also incredibly freeing to relieve yourself of the responsibility of changing people or feeling responsible for their actions. As the old Polish proverb goes, “Not my circus, not my monkeys.”

“Yes! It’s much like a concept propelled by the book ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k.’ Save your energy and set your boundaries accordingly. It’s realizing that we only have “control” over ourselves and it’s so freeing,” one viewer wrote.

“Let It Be” brought Paul McCartney solace as he dealt with losing his band in a very public breakup. The same state of mind can help all of us, whether it’s dealing with parents living in the past, friends who change and you don’t feel like you know them anymore, or someone who cuts you off in traffic because they’re in a huge rush to go who knows where.

The moment someone gets on your nerves and you feel a jolt of anxiety run up your back, take a big breath and say, “Let them.”

let them theory, let it be, paul mccartney, the beatles, exhalethe beatles wave GIFGiphy

This article originally appeared last year.

A smiling blonde woman.

There is something extremely unfair about people born with great genetics who are extremely good-looking. Sure, some folks can improve their looks after putting in some work at the gym or learning how to present themselves. but many people we consider conventionally attractive hit the jackpot by simply being born that way.

With little effort, these people have an incredible social advantage in life. They are seen as morally virtuous, receive random favors, are always the center of attention, and are more likely to get raises and promotions at work. The funny thing is that those with pretty privilege don’t realize the incredible advantage they have until it's gone.

What happens when people lose their pretty privilege?

A woman on Reddit recently shared how she realized the power that comes with pretty privilege when she gained a lot of weight, and the world immediately began treating her differently.

pretty privilege, good looking people, social experiment, beauty benefits,  weight, inequity, drinks, dateA man hitting on a beautiful woman. via Canva/Photos

“Whether we want to admit it or not, pretty privilege is a thing. And it’s something that I now realize I had for the majority of my life,” the woman wrote in a viral Reddit post. “People were usually very nice to me. I got offered perks like drinks at bars and extra attention when I went out. And I was stared at a lot.”

Things changed for the woman after she had a health condition that required her to take a medication that slowed her metabolism, so she rapidly gained weight. “The fatter I got, the less attention was paid to me. I didn’t notice it at first, but I began to have to ask for customer service at places instead of being offered, and I started to feel invisible, because no one looked at me,” the woman continued. “No one. People would walk right by and not even acknowledge my existence. It was strange at first, then incredibly humbling. I thought, well, this is the new normal.”

The power of thin privilege.

It’s important to note that being a certain weight doesn’t automatically make you good-looking. People can be good-looking at any weight. However, it would be naive to believe that thin people don’t have an advantage in this world.

pretty privilege, good looking people, social experiment, beauty benefits,  weight, inequity, A woman weighing herself. via Canva/Photos

The drastic fluctuation in the woman’s weight made her conscious of what other people who don’t have the privilege of being pretty or thin go through in life. It allowed her to have greater compassion for people, regardless of how they look. “My personality started to change a little. I began being thankful for any small interaction someone had with me, and responded to any small act of kindness with gratefulness,” she wrote. “I noticed other not conventionally pretty people, and other overweight people, and made an effort to talk to them and treat them like they mattered. I became a better person. Not that I wasn’t a good person before, but I was now more aware and empathetic to those around me.”

pretty privilege, good looking people, social experiment, beauty benefits,  weight, inequity, A woman with curly hair. via Canva/Photos

The woman soon went off the medication and, just like that, she lost weight, and people began to treat her as they had before. “The first time I noticed it was when I was in a store looking for something, and a handsome male worker came up to me and asked if I needed help. He looked me in the eyes. I felt like I mattered again,” she continued. “Then I instantly felt sad and horrified, because of the cosmic unfairness of life, that how we look really does determine how people treat us, even though it shouldn’t.”

After the woman lost her privilege, she better understood what other people go through. On one hand, she probably enjoys the privilege, but on the other, she feels that the world is much less fair than she once imagined. At least, in the end, it’s taught her to be more empathetic to everyone she meets. “And also, when someone looks at me and smiles, no matter who they are, I give them a huge smile back,” she finished her post.

The Gardiner Brothers stepping in time to Beyoncé's "Texas Hold 'Em."

In early February 2024, Beyoncé rocked the music world by releasing a surprise new album of country tunes. The album, Renaissance: Act II, includes a song called "Texas Hold 'Em," which shot up the country charts—with a few bumps along the way—and landed Queen Bey at the No.1 spot.

As the first Black female artist to have a song hit No. 1 on Billboard's country music charts, Beyoncé once again proved her popularity, versatility, and ability to break barriers without missing a beat. In one fell swoop, she got people who had zero interest in country music to give it a second look, forced country music fans to broaden their own ideas about what country music looks like, prompted conversations about bending and blending musical genres and styles, and gave the Internet a crash course on the Black roots of country music.

And she inspired the Gardiner Brothers to add yet another element to the mix—Irish step dance.

In a TikTok that's been viewed over 42 million times, the Gardiner Brothers don cowboy hats while they step in time to "Texas Hold 'Em," much to the delight of viewers everywhere.

Watch:

@gardinerbrothers

Beyoncé 🤝 Irish dancing #beyonce #countrymusic

Michael and Matthew Gardiner are professional Irish-American step dancers and choreographers who have gained international fame with their award-winning performances. They've also built a following of millions on social media with videos like this one, where they dance to popular songs, usually in an outdoor environment.

The melding of Irish dance with country music sung by a Black American female artist may seem unlikely, but it could be viewed merely as country music coming back to its roots. As mentioned, country music has roots in Black culture and tradition. One major staple of the country music genre, the banjo, was created by enslaved Africans and their descendants during the colonial era, according to The Smithsonian. The genre also has deep roots in the ballad tradition of the Irish, English and Scottish settlers in the Appalachian region of the U.S. Despite modern country music's struggle to break free from "music for white people" stereotypes, it's much more diverse than many realize or care to admit, and Queen Bey is simply following tradition.

banjo, country music, country, roots, genreMan playing banjo.Canva Photos

People are loving the blending of genres and culture that the TikTok exemplifies.

"Never thought I’d see Irish step dancing while Beyoncé sings country," wrote on commenter. "My life is complete. ♥️"

"So happy Beyoncé dropped this song and exposed my timeline to diversified talent 👏🏽👏🏽," wrote another.

"Beyoncé brought the world together with this song 😭," offered another person.

"Ayeeee Irish Dancing has entered the BeyHive chatroom… WELCOME!! 🔥🔥🔥" exclaimed another.

"I don’t think I can explain how many of my interests are intersecting here," wrote one commenter, reflecting what several others shared as well.

The Beyoncé/Gardiner Brothers combo and the reactions to it are a good reminder that none of us fit into one box of interest or identity. We're all an eclectic mix of tastes and styles, so we can almost always find a way to connect with others over something we enjoy. What better way to be reminded of that fact than through an unexpected mashup that blends the magic of music with the delight of dance? Truly, the arts are a powerful uniting force we should utilize more often.

And for an extra bit of fun, the Gardiner Brothers also shared their bloopers from filming the video. Turns out stepping in the rain isn't as easy as they make it look.

@gardinerbrothers

Beyoncé Bloopers #texasholdem #gardinerbrothers

This article originally appeared last year.

Despite a combined net worth of nearly half a billion dollars, Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian wanted to teach their daughter the importance of hard work.

In 2022, Vulture declared it was the “year of the Nepo Baby,” with a jaw-dropping, borderline-controversial cover story featuring various famous offspring of celebrities, including Zoe Kravitz (daughter of Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet), Maya Hawke (the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman), and Jack Quaid, Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid’s son.


“Like psoriasis, the label was something you were born with, and those who had it found it equally irritating.” - Nate Jones, Vulture

According to the article, the phrase “nepo baby” quickly became synonymous with “the child of a celebrity,” insinuating that people born into the lime light were out-of-touch and over-privileged, and it was the Internet’s job to keep them humble. However, tennis superstar Serena Williams and her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, won’t rely on online obsessives to instill humility in their children. As is the case with their seven-year-old daughter, Olympia, they’re playing a different game. Despite the power couple’s combined net worth approaching half a billion dollars, the two formally drew up a surprisingly modest $7 per week allowance system, in the hopes of teaching their daughter the value of hard work.


“Yes, Olympia’s got a contract,” Ohanian revealed in a video posted to social media. “[A] $7 per week allowance, negotiated by her mom (who, yes, got her weekends off).”

The duo’s approach to parenting has gone viral, withs fans praising their commitment to keeping Olympia grounded, rather than just spoiling her rotten. Which, of course would be easy to do, given that Williams, one of the highest-paid female athletes in the world, has an estimated net worth of $340 million, according to Business Insider, while her husband earned a net worth totaling $150 million.

During the negotiation, Ohanian insisted on creating a formal contract to outline expectations, while Williams served as Olympia’s counsel, creating an opposition Ohanian jokingly described as "really frustrating. The final terms of the contract? In order to receive her weekly allowance, Olympia’s responsibilities include:

  • Feeding the family’s dog, Chip.
  • Putting her clothes in the hamper.
  • Making her bed.

serena williams, daughter, tennis, champion, olympiaSerena Williams with her daughter, Olympia. Credit: Fotonerd

Typical for a seven-year-old, but thanks to her mother’s formidable litigation prowess, Olympia gets the weekends off, ensuring chores are completed five days a week. Ohanian describes the compromise as a “flywheel” between effort and reward, explaining that “neither Serena nor I grew up with wealth, so we’re both trying to navigate how to create the circumstances for [Olympia] to be a functional adult while also having resources that we couldn’t have imagined.”

Their plan is already working: in the same video, Ohanian also shares an anecdote about how Olympia’s mentality is slowly shifting to understanding that work equals reward, and that good things come to those who hustle.

“She really wanted this Tamagotchi watch. She had saved up quite a bit of money, probably almost $100. [The watch] was like, $125. I asked, ‘You got money?’ And she’s like, ‘I don’t have enough.’ I replied, ‘Okay, good. Embrace that feeling. How many more weeks of allowance do you need to be able to save up for it?’ So, as soon as she gets it, we clear out the bank and she got the Tamagotchi watch.” - Alexis Ohanian

But it doesn’t end there—just like the adult world, there’s always something shiny and new to desire, to covet, to buy. And before long, Olympia had her eye on an American Girl doll dress. However, after emptying her piggy bank on the watch, financially, she was back at square one.

“She gave me the cute puppy dog eyes. Believe me, she knows how to work Papa,” Ohanian recalls with a smile. “[But] I need her to feel that little bit of pain of like, 'Oh, I got to wait two more weeks for that paycheck.’”

butters, south park, paycheck, money, earningsSouth Park Gifmedia4.giphy.com

Commenters flooded Ohanian’s posts with praise, applauding the couple’s level-headed approach, with people writing, “Amazing lesson here. This is the how privileged children should be raised so they can understand the value of money,” and “Reminds me of how my mother did almost the same, except that I got my favorite books and a small treat for ticking off everything on her list. You two are good parents.”

Others even tried to negotiate a higher allowance for Olympia, with one person saying: “This is good, it’s exactly how my allowance went, I also got $7 a week. But that was in the late 90s/early 2000s. I think she should renegotiate for inflation.” Another attempted to give the seven-year-old financial advice, writing, “Have her flip or resell the Tamagotchi on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, or [with] another kid in school or in the neighborhood. Learn how to sell and position. I involve my 5-year-old in as many negotiations as possible” (To which Ohanian replied, "Love this.").


Financial experts are also on board with Williams and Ohanian’s strategy. Investopedianotes that when children are taught money management early, they tend to develop better financial habits as adults. And in their groundbreaking paper, Habit Formation and Learning in Young Children, Dr. David Whitebread and Dr. Sue Bingham of the University of Cambridge discovered that by age seven, children are able to “cognitively ‘represent’ value,” and that “several basic concepts relating broadly to later ‘finance’ behaviors will typically have developed,” which has been taken to mean that by age seven, a child’s money habits are already set.

But you don’t have to explain that to Serena Williams or Alexis Ohanian. The two came from humble beginnings and learned early on the important connection between hard work and financial success. Williams began her prodigious professional tennis career at just 14, when she competed at the Bell Challenge in Quebec City in 1995, earning her first $240 in prize money (approximately $500 today). Ohanian, on the other hand, was 23-years-old when he co-founded Reddit in 2005, then sold the website to publishing giant Conde Nast a year later for a mere $10 million; a deal that’s been described as “what turned out to be pennies on the dollar compared to its most recent multibillion-dollar valuation.”


serena williams, alexis ohanian, tennis, met gala, redditWilliams and Ohanian at the Met Gala.Credit: Ron Buckmire

Compared to her peers, Olympia is already ahead of the curve when it comes to financial education. But that’s not because her parents are famous: while she may only be earning $7 a week now, she’s being set up with a toolkit filled with invaluable lessons to succeed in life—by earning it.

Canva

A toddler pretends to be a doctor with her doll.

Kids say the darndest things. And sometimes, what they say is truly, brilliantly bizarre. It's too bad we can't go back in time to recall what kind of fun madness circled through our minds as children, with our synapses firing on all cylinders. Just the role-playing alone could take hours, exclaiming, "I'm a kitten! I'm a princess! I'm a doctor!" Our bodies might have been small, but our minds were truly wonderlands.

Speaking of doctors, comedian and mother Kelly Vrooman (@Kellyvrooms on TikTok) has been posting hilarious clips reenacting the nutty things her toddlers say as if their ideas were totally sensible. (And who's to say they aren't?)

In one such clip, she acts out a story as originally told by her four-year-old pretending to be a doctor with "very bad news."


@kellyvrooms

Dramatically acting out real things. My four-year-old says. For better or worse, I lick a rock in this one. #parenting #motherhood #comedyvideo #humor #momsoftiktok #parentsoftiktok

The clip begins with Kelly sheepishly walking around with a giant pink plastic ring on her finger, reminiscent of a prize one might win at an arcade. She declares, "I'm wearing a ring because…I'm a girl T-Rex."

It then cuts to her wearing a stethoscope and running to the camera, while theatrical music underscores her every move. "You have blood coming out your skin," she says dramatically. "I'm your doctor, let me look in your ear." She "checks" the ear and forlornly reveals, "You have a broken arm. And you're gonna have to wear a cast. And never move it again."

doctor, roleplay, stethoscope, kids, gifTeddy Bear doctor uses a stethoscope on a cat.Giphy

She waits a beat, and as if she'd completely forgotten her last sentence, says, "I'm gonna go check on something." But before she gets up, all of a sudden, she's holding a baby doll. "But you take care of your baby. Please! It's a very…born…baby." She then proceeds to immediately chuck said baby off to the side.

baby, doll, roleplaying, toys, kidsA baby doll with a pink hat lies on the floor.pxhere.com

She stands up and walks to a door before turning back with an intense stare. "Wanna go on a trip with me? I'm going to…Pennsylvania." The music swells. And just like that, as though the entire conversation never existed, we now see Kelly outside holding up a huge rock. "I just want to eat a real rock," she says, and then comes the big dramatic ending. She licks the rock…ya know, like one does.

This clip alone has over half a million likes and 4,000 comments, full of support and stories about bizarre things viewers' own kids have said—and some of them were equally as hilarious. One TikToker writes, " I throw my patients to the side when I think about Pennsylvania, too!" Another is thrilled that they're seemingly not alone. "LMAO. This lets me know my child is not broken." A few commenters insist the reenactment reminds them of the TV show Grey's Anatomy.

And if that wasn't all exciting enough, an actual nurse backed up the diagnosis. " So uh, I’m not a doctor or anything, however, I am a nurse practitioner and well…that assessment was on point. I will be changing the way I perform assessments from now on."

Kelly has lots of similar and equally adorable posts, including a recent one where her three-year-old makes up a story about a dog becoming a cat. In a different clip another child shares this bit of wisdom: "We are all farm animals. You came to a farm. And you're a chicken."

@kellyvrooms

You’re a chicken! Kids give the best excuses and insults, so take notes. #excuses #yoga #funparenting #parentinghumor #momhumor #momsofpreschoolers #momsoftoddlers #actingchallenge

Wiser words may never have been uttered. Leave it to a five-year-old.