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A woman living in a studio apartment on the Upper East Side says she’s still shaken—and still sleeping elsewhere—after her bathroom ceiling collapsed last month, sending water and a swarm of cockroaches into her unit.
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The incident, which occurred in July, was documented in a now-viral TikTok by 30-year-old marketing professional Carolyn D., who has lived in the $2,400-a-month apartment for three years.
“I get back to New York City, to my apartment, and I am in my bathroom, like washing my face, brushing my teeth, and I see out of the corner of my eye a giant crack over my toilet,” she said in the video. “It looks like the whole thing was about to bust through and, like, fall to the ground.”
Carolyn said she texted her building superintendent immediately. He told her he’d come by the next day, but just hours later, she was in bed and started hearing noises from the bathroom. That’s when the ceiling gave way.
“It all busts through — just like pieces everywhere,” she told the New York Post, which first reported the story. “Then water starts falling. And then I look at the ground and all the debris and I see, like… I saw at least five to 10 cockroaches come into the debris.”
In her TikTok, she gave a more visceral account: “I have never started scream crying so quick my entire life… when I see 100 cockroaches running out of my apartment, like, there’s just no chance I’d be able to sleep tonight.”
Water from a neighboring apartment was also pouring through the exposed ceiling, she said.
Carolyn booked a hotel room on the spot. “I literally don’t even have pajamas or anything,” she said in her video. “I just came, like, in what I had because I was scared to, like, touch anything… because I was scared there’s gonna be bugs on it.”
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Since the collapse, she’s avoided staying overnight in the apartment and has been temporarily living with a friend.
While the psychological toll has been significant—“I don’t know how I’m ever going to sleep there,” she told the Post—Carolyn said her landlords have been responsive. They quickly brought in an exterminator, scheduled a deep cleaning, and coordinated with her renters insurance provider.
“They helped me clean up. They were really respectful of everything,” she told The Post. “They’re paying me for a deep cleaning service… They’ve been really great working with my renters’ insurance and everything.”
She also emphasized the importance of having that insurance. “Renters’ insurance is so important because you never know when stuff like this is going to happen,” she said, noting she pays $17 a month for her policy.
The video of the incident has been viewed more than 320,000 times and sparked hundreds of horrified comments. One viewer wrote, “id leave the country or state immediately.” Another: “The roaches traumatized me and I wasn’t even there.”
While grateful for the support—and even some unexpected donations from viewers to cover takeout—Carolyn said she does not plan to renew her lease when it ends in May.
“I just feel as if shit like this is just like an extra, like twist of the knife,” she said in the video. “New York, I guess, teaches you to be resilient.”
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