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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Technology
Seren Morris

Woman thrifts sofa worth ‘thousands’ from NYC streets in viral TikTok: ‘Bedbugs are real’

A woman found a sofa she believed to be worth $8,000 (£6,400) on the pavement in New York City — but people on social media were less than impressed.

TIkTok user Amanda Joy (yafavv.mandaa) found what she identified as the Bubble sofa, designed by Sacha Lakic, in cobalt blue, which is currently being sold online for nearly £5,000.

Amanda’s father picked it up for her and together they cleaned it before moving it into her apartment.

The viral video has been viewed more than 40 million times on TikTok and more than 80 million times on Twitter, with thousands of viewers aghast at her actions.

While it may have seemed like a great bargain, many on social media are convinced that it’s too good to be true.

On TikTok, viewers were concerned with how deeply Amanda had cleaned the couch, with one of the most-liked comments saying: “That couch is nowhere near clean…”

One viewer said: “It’s so cool but I’d be petrified of what kind of insects and such have penetrated it,” while another said: “I did that once and got a roach infection.”

Another viewer simply reminded Amanda that “bedbugs are real”.

On Twitter, some furniture fans questioned if the sofa was even genuine, with some speculating that it’s actually a knock-off worth $600 (£480) from AliExpress.

Viewers still weren’t convinced by a follow-up video, with one saying: “Chilling with your bare back/arms and hair against stains you didn’t make is insane.”

Others have questioned why someone would throw away an expensive sofa if there was nothing wrong with it.

One viewer said: “There is a reason a seven thousand dollar couch was left outside,” while another commented: “An $8,000 couch is not going to be thrown out because of stains and a few rips.”

Despite the backlash, Amanda is defending her decision, making a follow-up video explaining the steps they took to ensure that it was clean and free of bedbugs. She even showed the Roche Bobois tag, to prove its authenticity.

“Y’all can think whatever y’all want.”

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