I manage the apartment house I live in, the renter across from me moved out at the beginning of the month, and I was over there steam cleaning the carpets.

Front room went ok, I was a little pissed at how much junk I had to clean up, since its right in the renters agreement that you CLEAN the place when you go. Other than pennies everywhere, and about 40 bb's (he had a indoor shooting range set up with a CO2 bb gun), I moved thru it pretty quick.
I moved to the bedroom, again, picking up pennies everywhere, vacuumed the room, and then dragged the steam cleaner in. Here is where I made my fatal mistake, and somehow I knew it, before it even became a problem. You ever get that feeling? The 'this is gonna come back to bite me in the ***' feeling?
When I vacuumed the room, I shut the door, but it doesn't quite sit right in the door frame, so I closed it as far as it would freely go, and left it. You have to shut the door to get the vac to the corner of the room, since it opens in.
When I fired up the steam cleaner, I pushed the door all the way shut, and latched it. This is when the 'gonna get bit in the ***' feeling came in. Ahh, whatever... Wanna finish up and go have a drink, so in 20 minutes I had steamed the room, shut off the cleaner, and walked to the door.
Thats as far as I got. Apparently, the latch sticks, and as you turn the ****, it goes with some resistance to a point, and then something slips. Hmmm.... try a few more times. Try turning the other direction, try leaning on the door when i turn, try pulling on the door, try lifting the door up. Hmmm. This is gonna be interesting.
I looked around for something to take the latch apart, or slide the pins out of the door, couldn't find anything but a cheapo stamped out open end wrench like what would come with a futon. Flimsy enough you could probably bend it in half with your hands. Thats not gonna do much good.
Well, looks like its time to break out the brute force, but if you saw any one of my pics from other threads, you'll know I'm no brute. Anyway, I take a step back, and run my shoulder into the door as hard as I could, the door makes a cracking sound, but doesn't give. I hit it like that probably another 6-7 times, it kept breaking a little more, but only to a point, after that it was like running into a trampoline. I could push the center of the door out 4" or so, but it would spring right back like nothing happened. My shoulder is starting to get a little sore, and I figured I'd be there quite a while from that approach. I figured I'd get a little more technical with my destruction, and focus it somewhere. Maybe that shiny door ****.
So I kicked the door **** off, hoping it would leave behind that square shaft that runs thru the center of the latch. There isnt one. Stupid cheap door ****..... I grabbed the flimsy little open end, and wedge the end of the wrench into one of the phillips screws holding the latch together, it grabs just enough to get the screw to start moving. Now we're getting somewhere. I sit there screwing around with that for a minute or so (no pun intended), until I get one of the phillips out far enough to get my fingers on it. I grabbed the remains of the ****, and pryed it off the door until it broke, pushed the guts thru the other side, and wedged a finger into what was left of the latch, gently sliding it back, and opening the door.
Total time 20-30 minutes, total expletives, 14.

I think I'll call it a night.

 

Did you give him his security deposit back?

 

say it with me "The door was broken when i got there!?"

 

He's gonna get half his deposit back. Its a nuisance to have to clean up like that, but the apartment was in decent shape otherwise.
Yeah, I broke the door, but they're cheap doors, and theres a budget for repairs and whatnot, so its no big deal.
I did find a book, a radio, and some odds and ends tools laying around that I'm going to claim as my own. Theres a 30 gallon fishtank on a stand in there still, I'm gonna call him, and give him a week to get it moved out before I sell it to another one of my tenants who've shown some interest in it.