Man mistakes stranger’s Cape Coral home for Airbnb while drunk, takes bath inside

A man from Minnesota was arrested after being found bathing inside a stranger’s Cape Coral home on Christmas morning, having mistaken the home for the Airbnb he was renting.

According to the Cape Coral Police Department, 26-year-old Levi Sholing of Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, was arrested after an officer was called to a house on Southeast 21st Place at around 7:15 a.m. regarding a trespasser.

Officers had already been to the home regarding a criminal mischief call in which a neighbor spotted a man outside banging on the front door and yelling while holding a rock.

“We could actually hear him over here banging on the door, yelling, ‘let me in. Let me in,'” said neighbor Cherry. “He went up, took the brick, and then smashed the window in, so he could get in the house.”

CCPD arrived and did not find the man but did find a broken glass front door. Before officers could finish a report, the victim called them back to the home after hearing noises from the house’s second floor.

Sholing was found bathing in a running tub full of warm water inside the master bathroom on the second floor. He got dressed and was detained, and was escorted out of the home.

“We were thinking, ‘oh my God, if she’s there, you know, we don’t know what that person was going to do,'” Cherry said.

Sholing told officers that he and his brother had spent Christmas Eve partying in downtown Fort Myers. Early on Christmas morning, they caught an Uber ride back to what they believed was the Airbnb they were renting. Sholing said that, due to his level of drunkenness, he became separated from his brother while walking to the Airbnb. He began knocking at the front door for someone to open it. When no one answered, Sholing went to the garden in front of the house and used a rock to smash the glass on the front door.

“He’s lucky he didn’t get shot by somebody,” said Cherry.

Sholing said he went inside, walked upstairs, and got into the bathtub, where officers found him. He insisted that he did not enter the house to commit a crime and believed it to be the Airbnb where he had been staying. No items or property were reported missing or removed.

“I feel bad for him because it was just a drunken night, but I don’t know why… What possessed him to break in,” Cherry said.

The victim said that the damage to the front door would cost between $3,000 and $5,000.
Sholing faces charges of criminal mischief over $1,000 and trespassing (occupied structure or conveyance). Officers were able to locate Sholing’s family and the correct address of his Airbnb—one street away and not a two-story building like the home he went into.