TikTok influencer Tabitha Swatosh‘s moving nightmare has taken yet another surprising twist — after she was forced to change the locks at her new home because of a major security mistake.
The 24-year-old, who has been busily documenting her move from Los Angeles to Nashville, TN, has faced a number of hurdles during her relocation.
It began when the home she was supposed to be renting was sold out from under her, just days before she was due to move in.
After days of uncertainty, Swatosh — who is known online as Tabs — managed to find a new dwelling to rent.
However, her joy at moving into that property was short-lived when she made the grave mistake of flashing her front door keys to her millions of followers in a video documenting her first day in the home.
In the clip, an excited Swatosh can be seen telling her 14.9 million followers that she has set up the gas and electricity at the property, and needs only to pick up the keys before “the house is mine!”
The video then cuts to a clip of the influencer’s boyfriend, Michael Sanzone, and their close friend, singer Alex Warren, packing up her belongings, before she opens the doors to her new property — happily flashing her keys at the camera in the process.
Though she undoubtedly thought the action was innocent, several of her followers were quick to point out how easily she had compromised her safety.
First, several users warned that using the same keys as the previous owner can be risky because it’s impossible to tell whether the former residents have given up every single key they made.
Second, and perhaps more pertinent as far as Swatosh is concerned, sharing an image or video of your keys online can enable would-be thieves and criminals to make a copy, leaving your home at serious risk of a break-in.
“Please update locks, get a security system, stay safe,” one person wrote in response to the clip, while another added: “Don’t forget to change the locks and any door codes!”
“There’s quite a bit of information that can be gleaned simply by looking at a physical key (or an image of one),” security experts at Nighthawk Strategies warn. “Many keys may have an inscription of the brand of lock it is used for, such as Master, Schlage, Kwikset, Brinks, and so on.
“Additionally, the number of ‘bittings’ or pointed notches on a key can tell an observer how many pins are inside its corresponding locking mechanism.
“In theory, a criminal could use a picture of a key to recreate a physical key using various methods, including 3D printing or an online-based locksmithing and key-cutting service.”
Thankfully, Swatosh’s mistake did not go unnoticed by her loved ones — with her boyfriend later revealing in a video posted to his account that he had hightailed it to Home Depot to get a new lock for the front door of the home.
“So we just got a new place and within five seconds, Tab already posted the keys, so come with me to Home Depot to replace the locks,” he says, while striding into the store.
Once inside, he explains that he wants to “eliminate the locks” altogether to prevent Swatosh from making the same mistake again. He reveals plans to install a keypad and numerical code.
He then shares a video of himself installing the new lock and keypad, which took about an hour. The new system appeared to be in good working order once it was finished.
“This should do the trick,” Sanzone says with a triumphant twist of the door handle.
Swatosh’s new house is located on the outskirts of Nashville — thousands of miles away from her former home in Tarzana, CA, where she lived with several friends, including Warren and his now-wife Kouvr Annon.
However, she and her roommates had opted to end the lease on their shared home at the end of December, she explained in a previous video, noting that Warren and Annon wanted to move into a new marital home after tying the knot in June.
Swatosh and Sanzone decided to follow their friends to Nashville, but their plans hit a snag when the former was told by her real estate agent that the home she had signed a lease on had been sold.
Sharing the news in a tearful TikTok video, she told her followers that she’d learned of the shocking development only after her movers began packing up all of her belongings.
“I’m actually so confused,” she said tearfully in the video. “They have my deposit, and in writing. And now my movers are here with nowhere to go. I have nowhere to go.”
Thankfully, just days later, her real estate agent managed to secure her another property.
“It’s going to be a great fit,” the agent told Swatosh over the phone. “It might not be perfect, it might not be everything you want, but it’s a gorgeous house. It’s going to fit you great. I really think for what you’re looking for, it might even be a better fit for you.”
