Alavia Khawaja is sharing her story of being stalked by a Airbnb guest who checked into her apartment in Richardson, Texas, and immediately began ransacking the place
A Texas woman who has been left living in fear as she’s stalked by a former Airbnb guest is sharing her story as a warning to others.
Alavia Khawaja began renting out an empty room in the apartment she shares with her sister in September to supplement her income as a freelance photographer after one of her housemates moved out.
On October 11, she locked the door to her own bedroom and asked a male friend to come over as a precaution before welcoming an Airbnb guest into her home.
Khawaja said nothing about Leonard Jackson seemed out of the ordinary as she handed him her apartment keys and left to carry on with her day.
When she returned home four hours later, Khawaja’s apartment had been ransacked.
She said she found Jackson had broken into her bedroom and torn it apart, throwing away her photos of male friends and stealing $500.
‘I saw my door was cracked open, the lights were on, my closet had been gone through,’ Khawaja told the Fort Worth Star Telegram. ‘The cosmetic case where my sister keeps her cash was empty.’
After coming home to find Leonard Jackson, 31, trashing her apartment, Khawaja threw him out and reported him to police and Airbnb. Jackson is pictured in an undated mugshot
After throwing Jackson out of her apartment, Khawaja immediately contacted Richardson police, who took her statement but told her they likely wouldn’t be able to arrest him unless he admitted to the theft.
She then turned to Airbnb for help, and was instructed by a representative to fill out a conflict resolution form.
The rep said that if the conflict hadn’t been independently resolved in three days, Airbnb would intervene.
However, the situation would only get worse from there.
Over the next several days Jackson bombarded Khawaja with texts and messages through the Airbnb site, asking to meet up with him and saying he needed a place to stay, even trying to re-book her room.
One text said: ‘I need you to be my wife one day.’
As Jackson continued to contact Khawaja, she went to Richardson detectives again and learned that he had recently been arrested for harming a child.
Still, though, they said there was nothing they could do unless Jackson confessed.
When Airbnb finally responded to Khawaja’s conflict resolution request, the company said it did not cover cash losses and said if she wanted further action from the company she needed to fill out the form again and wait another three days.
Desperate for some kind of solution, Khawaja decided to text Jackson back on October 20, in hopes of getting him to admit to stealing from her.
‘I didn’t want to, but I wasn’t getting help,’ she said.
‘I texted Leonard and said I would have considered letting him stay if he hadn’t stolen from me. He said: “I just got out of jail and want to see you.”‘
According to jail records, Jackson had been arrested on October 17 in Dallas on a weapons and drug possession charge and he bonded out soon after.
In screenshots of the text conversation provided by Khawaja, Jackson tells her he is on his way to her apartment to ‘clear up this big misunderstanding’.
He also says: ‘Will you be my wife, Ima show you how much I appreciate you, Ima show you love,’ and ‘do you got any condoms I can use.’
Desperate for some kind of solution, Khawaja decided to text Jackson back on October 20, in hopes of getting him to admit to stealing from her. Screenshots of a text message exchange between Jackson and Khawaja are pictured above
Khawaja called police to report that Jackson was coming over, but 911 dispatchers said they couldn’t send officers unless he actually showed up at her apartment.
Sgt Kevin Perlich explained to the Star Telegram that the department doesn’t have the resources to send an officer ‘to everybody’s doorstep on the premise someone might show up’.
Perlich said: ‘Had [Jackson] been a threat to her before, certainly we would have sent someone there. But he left peacefully before and there was no indication he was a physical threat to her.’
Not wanting to face Jackson on her own, Khawaja parked her car across the complex from her apartment as she waited for his arrival.
As soon as she saw him approach her door she called 911 again, and officers arrived to arrest him for trespassing.
Jackson called Khawaja four different times from the jail, but she took comfort in the fact that police had assured her he would be held behind bars for awhile.
She was shocked when just 24 hours later she received another Airbnb message from Jackson, who had been released on bond.
‘I asked why someone didn’t let me know, and [a detective] said: “If we called someone every time someone was released, we’d always be on the phone,”‘ Khawaja said.
Perlich said Jackson had been able to post bond so quickly because he’d been arrested on a Class B misdemeanor trespassing charge.
Jackson’s Airbnb profile photo is shown above. At least two other women have come forward with stories about the 31-year-old since Khawaja shared her experience
In the wake of what she viewed as a weak response by law enforcement and Airbnb, Khawaja shared her experience in a Twitter thread on October 27.
Within less than a week it had received more than 50,000 favorites and two other women came forward with their own horror stories about Jackson.
One woman said she was stalked by Jackson after he stayed with her, and that she reported him to Airbnb but the company didn’t appear to do anything about it.
Another woman said she received a message from Jackson but ultimately decided not to let him stay with her after seeing a negative review the first woman had posted.
Khawaja said she was shocked by the overwhelming number of responses to her Twitter thread.
‘I’m seeing all these other women comment and say: “I had a similar experience, but someone died.” ‘I realized how lucky I am to be alive,’ she said.
‘I was really scared while it was happening, but I am so used to being harassed, like most women are, that it didn’t hit me that I could die this time.’
While many of the responses contained messages of support, Khawaja said several also blamed her for how the situation went down.
‘I don’t like when people focus on what a victim should have done better,’ she said.
‘There is always something a victim could have done better. If you get hit by a car, you could have been more aware of your surroundings. ‘But no one ever focuses on how the abuser should not have abused.’
Khawaja posted the thread above on Twitter earlier this week because she felt her complaints hadn’t been adequately addressed by law enforcement or Airbnb
Jackson’s profile was finally removed from the Airbnb site two weeks after Khawaja’s initial complaint.
As her story began to be picked up by news outlets in the Dallas area and across the nation, Airbnb public affairs spokesman Ben Breit said that the rental company’s response to her complaint was ‘simply too slow and we are working to fully support our host’.
In a statement to the Star Telegram on Wednesday, Breit wrote: ‘This reported behavior is abhorrent and unacceptable, and has no place on Airbnb.
‘We have removed this guest from our platform and are in contact with local law enforcement to offer our assistance.
‘There have been over 400 million guest arrivals to date and negative incidents are extremely rare.’
Meanwhile, Perlich appeared to place part of the blame on Khawaja for choosing to list her apartment on Airbnb in the first place.
‘You’ve got two young ladies renting out a room, it’s not the best situation,’ he said.
‘Usually when you’re renting out a room that way, you’re not there, but they were. It’s not the best idea or the safest thing to be in the apartment with someone you don’t know.’
Khawaja emphasized that she was not trying to blame Richardson police for the situation, saying: ‘They were all very kind to me, they were just not very efficient.’
According to Dallas County Jail records, Jackson was not in custody as of Friday evening, but Perlich said a warrant has been issued for his arrest on theft charges.