Shannon Welch didn’t mind her roommate Alexis dealing marijuana from their South Orange, N. J. apartment.

The four Seton Hall University students who shared the first-floor apartment smoked their share. “That’s probably why we didn’t care,” said Welch.

Not until police raided their apartment with a search warrant on Thursday night. They found about $3,000 in cash and $5,000 in cocaine and marijuana in an orange Halloween trick-or-treating pumpkin in Alexis’ room—and an unlicensed revolver under her bed.

The roommates were all arrested on drug and gun charges, and spent the night in the police detention center after questioning. The cocaine and the gun came as a complete shock, said Welch, an Amherst woman who is now a University at Buffalo alumni.

Welch is among the many UB students that share tales of nightmare roommates and offer suggestions to help others avoid misfortunes.

Joumada Hamady’s story involved the police too—but they were more interested in learning why her roommate would try to kill himself. Hamady, a senior from Lebanon, arrived at UB in November 2003, with nowhere to stay. She perused classified ads looking for apartments in need of roommates, and was in luck, or so she thought.

On November 29, shortly after moving in to her new roommate Libby’s “clean, beautiful apartment” Hamady said something “just didn’t seem right.” On December 3, Libby politely asked if her boyfriend could move into the two-bedroom Cheektowaga apartment they shared. Hamady agreed, as long the two parties didn’t “bother each other.”

Sometimes, bothersome roommates become hilariously entertaining, or just plain ridiculous. During the summer of 2006, Tim Murphy, a UB senior, and his eight long-time buddies, lived in a Cheektowaga apartment above a pizzeria. Their apartment may have come close to achieving Animal House status in one booze-filled night.

According to Murphy, “about 40 people showed up,” to a rowdy kegger in his apartment. One of the revelers, Murphy’s roommate Jack, had imbibed slightly too much beer and Jack Daniels. “He was wasted, running around in ‘I Love to Fart’ underwear,” Murphy fondly recalls. But then the party went where no party should ever go. Apparently, partygoers egged on the friend to defecate on the living room rug.

“He just did it in the middle of the damn room. He was just like, ‘Fuck it, I’ll shit on the carpet!’” said Murphy, still with a hint of disbelief. Luckily for the boys, their roommate’s leavings were just “a localized turd,” and Murphy said he and his roommates were able to clean it up with a Shop-Vac, which they never had the decency to clean.

Apparently these types of shenanigans did not faze Murphy, who still remembers the event as rather hilarious. When asked what he would have done differently he said, frankly, “Nothing. It was all good memories.”

Hamady and Welch have entirely different tales.

It started out innocently enough. Everybody knows college students are notorious for experimentation with drugs and alcohol. Not to say that all of them are devoted alcoholic tokers but you’d be hard pressed to find a student who hasn’t at least dabbled by drinking a beer or smoking a poorly-rolled joint. Shannon Welch and her four roommates weren’t any different.

The girls met while living on the same floor in the dorms. Welch said they often held parties at their apartment, and she knew that Alexis had been dealing pot out of her room. “About ten people per day came to buy from her,” said Welch, and that fateful night was like any other.

Jay-Z was blaring through the speakers while the ladies pre-gamed with some Bud Light. It was a Thursday night and they were getting ready to go out. Welch said they had probably smoked a little pot earlier in the day. All of a sudden there was banging at the door. Welch said her roommate, still wet from the shower, grabbed a towel to get the door. It was the police.

“We figured they just showed up because of the noise, it had happened before,” said Welch. But when they realized that it was an entire fleet of seven cars, chaos ensued. “Alexis was panicking and crying hysterically,” said Welch, who at that moment, still wasn’t sure what was going on. “The police made us go in the living room and we weren’t allowed to talk to each other,” said Welch. She doesn’t talk to her ex-roommates, except for an occasional chat with Alexis over the Internet; she is still facing charges and Welch may need to testify on her own behalf.

After her arrest was cleared, Welch left Seton Hall and warily returned to her Amherst home. “I’m pretty sure my dad wanted to punch me in the face [over the ordeal]” said Welch. Now that the situation is long behind her, Welch offers advice for naïve college students: “Move out if someone is selling drugs,” she said simply.

Unlike Welch, Joumada Hamady’s predicament wasn’t because she turned a deaf ear to an unlawful situation, nor was it because she enjoyed throwing parties at her apartment.

Hamady’s new roommate Libby seemed really nice, so she thought letting her boyfriend Dan move in wouldn’t be a problem. At first glance it seemed beneficial since he would pay a portion of the rent. This was not the case.

Almost immediately after moving in, the fighting began. According to Hamady it was “bad fighting,” not the silly arguments most couples deal with. Most of these tiffs went on throughout the night, sometimes even until four in the morning.

Things eventually turned violent. One night Hamady said that the couple was having a particularly heated argument, and Libby hit Dan. Emotions ran hot as Dan proceeded to punch his girlfriend in the face. Hamady said Libby “cried and cried.” The situation only grew worse.

“It was a very peaceful weekend, quiet and nice, no fighting” Hamady said. But then, Sunday night the fighting began. Hamady remembers Dan being really upset, but she was in her room so she didn’t know the extent of it. “Libby came into my room and told me to call 911 because Dan was trying to kill himself,” she said. Dan had wrapped a scarf around his neck and was suffocating himself; the police had to come to break up the incident.

Shortly after the suicide attempt, Hamady moved out to live by herself. Her advice to people searching for a roommate is to save yourself the trouble and get a one-bedroom apartment. “I will never rent with a roommate again,” she firmly stated.

Living with roommates is a great way to meet new people or spend time with friends throughout your college career. Unfortunately some end up with bad memories, grudges, and in Welch’s case, lawyer bills.

Sign that lease at your own risk, because, in the words of Shannon Welch, “You never know your roommates.”