Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Is Backing Out Of His Brand New $6 Million Home Because People Keep Showing Up To Kill The Crypto Investor Who Used To Live There

YASUYOSHI CHIBA. Getty Images.

Note: this story broke a few weeks ago but I read it today. Fascinating stuff. 

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander just learned the hard way about the many risks of owning a home. No matter how carefully your home inspector checks for issues, something always pops up. Heck, my buddy bought his dream home recently on a quiet cul-de-sac in a fancy suburb of Philadelphia. Couple months in, their water pipes burst because a goddamn tree in the front yard was spreading its roots into the plumbing under the house. Classic!! They had to dig everything up and it cost them thousands. 

But I'd take that over disgruntled crypto gangsters banging down the door to break the knee caps of the former owner. Which is the classic real estate pickle Shai currently finds himself in: 

NYT- 

The six-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot house on Lake Ontario that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander…  bought for… $6.1 million, should have been a dream home.

In his lawsuit, Mr. Gilgeous-Alexander said that two days after he moved in a man appeared demanding to see someone he had never heard of — Mr. Pleterski. Rather than leave when told that no one by that name was there, the uninvited visitor looked around the property and then sat in his car in the driveway.

The young N.B.A. player’s house… had been the home of Aiden Pleterski, a self-styled “crypto king” who declared bankruptcy in 2022, while owing 26.8 million Canadian dollars to more than 150 investment clients.

Court records show that the home received a steady stream of angry visitors seeking to talk to Mr. Pleterski while he was living there and after he moved out

Last December, court documents show, Mr. Pleterski was kidnapped by one of his aggrieved investors and four other men, then beaten and tortured over three days.

This is like some modern, vaguely-distant cousin to the plot of The Strangers. You've got an NBA star and his girlfriend answering the gigantic door to their brand new home to find… a total stranger, possibly holding a roll of duct tape and some jumper cables behind his back, asking for "Aiden Pleterski." 

No, dude. I'm Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The star of the Oklahoma City Thunder? You have the wrong house. 

Then he LOOKS AROUND THE PROPERTY and sits in his car in your driveway for the rest of the day. 

You bet I'd be asking the broker to back us out of the 10,000 square-foot house. I'm surprised they even lasted two days. 

Apparently there was even an interim owner between the crypto king and Shai, Mr. Gupta. He had his share of visitors looking for Peterski as well, so he sold the place. Thus, Shai's complaints are directed at Gupta for not letting him know that the house was fucking haunted by real-life gangsters coming for their pound of Peterski flesh. 

In a response to Mr. Gilgeous-Alexander’s complaint, Mr. Gupta’s company downplayed the frequency and potential danger brought by the uninvited visitors and argued that it had no obligation to disclose the persistence of the unwelcome guests.

“Notwithstanding the fact that Aiden was abducted, any visit to the Property by an individual inquiring about its former occupant would be viewed as an entirely normal occurrence,” it said.

I'm dying. "If you ignore the fact that he was kidnapped and tortured for three days, it's totally normal for any home to have daily visitors coming to beat the shit out of the guy again." 

Nice try, Gupta. I've lived in enough homes where that didn't happen to know it's at MOST a once-a-week thing. Every day? That's pushing it. 

Here's hoping Shai and his lovely partner can get out of their home and find a new, safe place to live in beautiful Canada.