Roommate left things behind... what do I do? (Kinda long sorry)

𝙲𝚊

So, my husband & I let a high school friend of mine move in with us on January 7, 2019. We live in TN & she was coming from FL. She had called me one day in very early December (2018) saying that her living situation was bad, her current boyfriend wasn’t a very nice guy & that she just needed to escape. So, me, being the people pleaser I am, talked my husband into letting her move into our spare room. I had told her it was only temporary & would need to find her own place as soon as she could since my husband & I have a baby (she turned 1 the day after my friend “Jane” moved in).

When she arrived she literally only had 4 suitcases of belongings to her name. 2 of which were clothing & the other two suitcases were items that meant a lot to her that she couldn’t bare to leave behind in Florida. We had gotten a bed frame from my older sister who just happened to be getting rid of one just as we needed it. “Jane” purchased everything else that she needed herself with what money she got from an SSI check (disability). She bought a mattress for the frame (it was the kind where you didn’t need a box spring), bedding, two end tables, some towels for herself & she bought her own food.

When we picked her up at the airport she had said that she already bought a plane ticket to her home state of Oklahoma while she still had money so she could go visit friends. She was leaving January 30, 2019 & would return on February 23, 2019.

So, while she was here in that span we encountered some problems. She obviously wasn’t use to living with young children because every time my daughter did something that was completely normal like pull 2-3 books off of HER bookshelf at a time, “Jane” scolded her for “making a mess”. I was very quick to shut that down. I told her that it was normal for babies to do things like that & that she did not have my approval to discipline my daughter unless it was something serious like my daughter about to her herself or for something like my daughter hitting. She continued to scold my daughter for very small things & I continued to tell “Jane” that it was not okay for her to scold my daughter.

On top of that, “Jane” was always saying very inappropriate things in front of my daughter. She would say things along the lines of wanting to kill herself to how hard she wanted someone to “fuck” her. All with my daughter sitting right there. I told “Jane” that it was inappropriate & not acceptable. She would apologize but do it again the next day.

So, anyway January 30th rolled around, I dropped her off at the airport. That was the last time I would hear from her in almost 2 weeks.

She called 2 days before she was scheduled to land in TN (February 21, 2019). She said that her & her old boyfriend were going to try to work things out so she wouldn’t be coming back. She also told me that her disability had been terminated so she no longer had income. She asked to keep what things she had there until she could come back to get them. I agreed.

It is now May 12, 2019 & her belongings are still in my house. She has made no attempts to contact me about said items & all contact I have tried to make with her have not been accepted. She won’t return my messages or my phone calls.

I need her stuff gone so I can use the room in MY house for what I need it for & that will not work with a bedroom in there.

Should I just get rid of her stuff & tell her tough luck? Can I get in trouble legally for doing so?

What should I do?

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