A Brooklyn subtenant has turned a nightmare roommate saga into a viral social media spectacle, sharing videos that appear to show an increasingly chaotic apartment life marked by security cameras, padlocked doors and residents allegedly resorting to jars when they could not access the bathroom.
Kyle “Bobby” Harvey, 30, said he began recording the unsettling behavior of his roommate, Stephen Pulido, after becoming convinced Pulido was trying to drive him and the other tenants out of their four-bedroom Bushwick apartment, which rents for $4,200 a month.
“That’s why I started filming … because I didn’t even know what to make of it. Like there was so much stuff happening that I just needed to document it,” said Harvey, a video editor who also builds websites for content creators.
Harvey moved into the apartment as a subtenant in November 2023 after finding the listing online. At first, he said, he dismissed Pulido — the overtenant on the lease — as someone who simply gave off “a little bit of an off vibe.”
That initial discomfort soon escalated, Harvey told The Post, into a string of disturbing allegations: bathrooms being locked, doorknobs removed, bottles filled with urine and surveillance cameras aimed toward his bedroom door.
Harvey’s Instagram reels, which have drawn more than 20 million views, package NYPD visits and tense household confrontations with the pacing and drama of a “Love Island”-style spinoff. In the clips, Pulido can be seen shouting at roommates to “get off his couch,” switching off lights and slamming refrigerator doors as others try to use the kitchen.
“I’ve just been editing the videos to be as engaging as possible, to be somewhat entertaining, maybe even funny, because I wanted it to have the largest reach,” Harvey said.
Still, Harvey and several former roommates said the viral footage captures only a fraction of what they describe as a broader pattern of bizarre and hostile conduct — behavior they believe was intended to pressure them into moving out on their own.
When Harvey was stuck in bed with severe pneumonia in February, Pulido allegedly locked the apartment’s only working bathroom from the inside and sealed the door with duct tape so his roommates couldn’t use it.
When Harvey tried to unlock the door, Pulido allegedly charged across the apartment to physically shove him out of the way, prompting the cops to be called twice.
The roommates, driven to desperation, claimed they resorted to urinating in water bottles — a habit roommate Joe Medina said he’s continued on multiple occasions to avoid confrontations with Pulido.
“I’ve dealt with a lot of anxiety living in the house … you never know if you’re gonna get into a battle or not,” said Medina, who has lived in the apartment for two years.
Just a few weeks before sealing the door shut, Pulido smiled and laughed while slamming a heavy metal door onto Harvey’s foot, causing him pain, according to video and photo evidence.
Pulido also installed a security camera in the shared living room, pointing it directly at Harvey’s $1,050-a-month bedroom, according to photos.
The roommate later texted Medina to say, “Remember that I have video and audio proof. I record everything in the common area now.”
In a separate heated March text exchange over Harvey’s refusal to pay a higher-than-usual toilet paper bill, Pulido told Harvey he could no longer use the kitchen and bathroom.
“NO ONE LIVES IN MY HOME FOR FREE, YOU WORTHLESS TRASHCAN OF A HUMAN BEING,” he wrote to Harvey, according to a text message viewed by The Post.
Since Pulido is the primary leaseholder and not a traditional landlord, the NYPD and Brooklyn Housing Court have repeatedly told Harvey that he has few options, leaving him trapped in a legally ambiguous area.
Former roommate Carlos Brumfield, who lived with Pulido from March 2023 until June 2024, alleged Pulido once locked him out of his bedroom while he was showering, forcing him to climb across a fire escape in a towel to get dressed.
“He would get in my face whenever we were at the bathroom door and just curse at me and say, ‘I could kick your ass whenever I want, this is my place,’” Brumfield said.
Leo Mark Avery, who lived in the hellhole from January 2023 to the end of July 2024, said things would often get heated and end with screaming and banging fists on tables.
“I realized it made more sense for me to just leave there than try and live somewhere where I’m already not comfortable and go through whatever this man is … I didn’t know what he was capable of,” Avery said.
In late June, Pulido hired a process server to deliver a “notice to vacate” to Harvey while he was leaving the shower, still in a towel. The notice did not comply with the 90-day requirement for tenants who have resided at a property for over two years and ordered the pair to leave in less than a month.
Harvey and Medina have since withheld rent at the advice of a housing lawyer. Harvey said he plans to stay in the apartment and keep filming until he is served a legal eviction notice.
Pulido has since allegedly installed a new padlock on the bathroom, hiding all the toilet paper in the house, and dismantled the apartment’s air-conditioning panel during a scorching July heatwave.
In multiple caught-on-camera incidents, Pulido has also entered the roommates’ rooms without their permission to move things around or to show their rooms to prospective tenants.
Harvey’s landlord, Justin Rubinstein, received multiple written notices of Pulido’s behavior, according to emails reviewed by The Post. The landlord did not respond or intervene, stating he was reluctant to get involved in roommate squabbles.
Records also show the building’s registration expired in September 2024.
Rubinstein did not immediately respond to The Post’s multiple requests for comment.
In a statement, Pulido declined to comment on the allegations, citing legal proceedings against his roommates and a harassment complaint filed with police.
Multiple harassment reports filed with the NYPD appear to show that Pulido filed complaints alleging that his roommates antagonized him.
The reports include one filed on July 15 for getting into a verbal dispute that left him feeling “annoyed and harassed,” and another on June 29 for receiving “threatening text messages” that left him feeling “annoyed and alarmed,” according to an NYPD spokesperson.
