‘Why would I not rob him?’: A woman says she found another girl’s photos on her boyfriend’s phone at her birthday dinner

A TikTok creator says she once took her boyfriend’s wallet during her birthday dinner after finding photos of another woman on his phone, according to the Daily Dot. The creator, known as Livi, told the stories in a “get ready with me” video. Livi opens by saying, “Not proud of it, but woman enough to admit that I’ve done it.” She says her ex-boyfriends “deserved it” and that she acted the way she did, describing herself at the time as “young” and “unhealed.”

Livi says that at 23, her latest ex-boyfriend took her to Nobu for her birthday dinner and brought her flowers. She says they were having “the best time ever” until she looked through the photos on his phone and saw a girl. She says she then took his wallet, went up to her apartment and did not let him in. “Why did I rob him? I have no idea,” she says in the video.

She says she did not spend anything and does not think there was any money in it. Her ex, she says, spent two or three hours outside her apartment and kept calling her phone, saying he was calling the police. Livi says she told him to go ahead: “Call the police, I said. I love the police. I would love to tell them what I saw on your phone.” Livi says she also video-called her best friend while he waited outside, ending with, “Why would I not rob him?”

How the law defines theft

The report does not say where the dinner took place, and theft laws differ by state. The outlet said it could not confirm what she describes, which rests only on how she tells it. Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute describes larceny as “the illegal taking of the property of another with intent to deprive the owner thereof.”

It describes theft as “the taking of another person’s personal property with the intent of depriving that person of the use of their property.” Some states define that intent in detail. Under New York Penal Law § 155.00, to “deprive” someone of property means to withhold it “permanently or for so extended a period or under such circumstances that the major portion of its economic value or benefit is lost to him.”

Livi used the word “rob” in the video, but robbery is a separate offense. The institute defines robbery as “an act of unlawfully taking the property of another by violent force or the threat of such force, with the intent to deprive them of it permanently.” The account as the outlet relayed it does not include force or threats.

Whether any taking counts as a crime depends on the state, the facts and the person’s intent. The outlet did not name her exes and did not report that police were involved.