“Don’t Move in Here”: California Renter Says Landlord’s Camera Watches People Walk Out of the Bathroom Into the Kitchen

Home is supposed to be the one place nobody watches you. A California renter says theirs stopped feeling that way when their landlord put a camera in the hallway, right beside the bathroom, and the footage has now rattled thousands of strangers online. The tenant, posting on Reddit as Rothmal, shared a video they say shows the camera slowly tracking them from the bathroom toward the kitchen. The clip is quiet, ordinary, and deeply unnerving.

Rothmal has raised concerns about indoor cameras at the property since December 2024, and the latest video brought the complaint to a boil. The camera sits in the hallway, the tenant says, so it is not technically pointed inside the bathroom, but Rothmal alleges it can probably see into it. The tenant did not say whether the camera moves on its own or is being steered, and commenters split over that very question.

The warning Rothmal left for anyone thinking of renting there was blunt: “Don’t move in here.” The tenant says the place is all they can afford, and when commenters asked why they did not simply leave, the answer was just as blunt: “This is slumhouse for people that are on rock bottom, if I could afford somewhere else I would.” That exchange turned a creepy video into a debate about poverty and choice: for Rothmal, moving out is a door money already closed.

Slumlord wants to watch to watch us leaving the bathroom and going into the kitchen.
by u/rothmal in LandlordLove

Slumlord wants to watch to watch us leaving the bathroom and going into the kitchen.
byu/rothmal inLandlordLove

One Camera, and a Much Longer List of Accusations

The camera is not Rothmal’s only grievance. The tenant also accuses the landlord, a man they say is over 60, of animal cruelty and misconduct toward women tenants, including kicking a neighbor’s cat and spraying it with a hose. The caveat matters: Rothmal has offered no proof for those claims beyond the camera video, and none has been independently confirmed.

Commenters were less interested in caveats than in action: the most popular advice was simple, unplug it, and others urged Rothmal to call the police and animal welfare authorities. What nobody disputed was the core discomfort: a camera in the hallway, turning to follow you, every time you step out of the bathroom.

That is where the argument settles, and where it stays unsettled. A landlord has a real interest in protecting a property, and a hallway camera is not a camera in a bathroom. But a tenant also has a real right to feel unwatched at home, and a lens that swivels to follow them makes that right feel theoretical. Until someone with authority looks at the setup, both sides argue from the same short video, and viewers are left asking Rothmal’s question: if this is the cheapest roof available, what choice does a renter actually have?