US Senate candidate convicted of tossing tarantula into Airbnb

A US Senate hopeful has been found guilty of throwing a live tarantula into an Airbnb property she rented out, an act she admitted was inspired by the movie “Home Alone” in an attempt to scare off her tenant.

Marisa Simonetti, 32, an independent candidate from Minnesota, confessed that the 1990 McCaulay Culkin film motivated her to toss the arachnid down the stairs of a basement unit she was renting to Jacklyn Vasquez in 2024, NBC News reported.

“I watched the movie ‘Home Alone’ growing up, and I was like, you know what, this is such a strange situation,” Simonetti told the outlet, referencing a scene where the young protagonist uses a tarantula to prank potential burglars. She explained that when she feels scared or hurt, she tries to make jokes, and in her anxiety over rising tensions with her tenant, she did not know how to react. “And so, yeah, I got the spider,” she said.

The incident, captured on video, led to Simonetti’s conviction for gross misdemeanor harassment, misdemeanor domestic assault, and disorderly conduct after a three-day trial in Hennepin County District Court, according to Eden Prairie Local News.

The conflict between the two women started shortly after Vasquez moved into Simonetti’s basement in 2024. Vasquez had inquired about pest control for the “large spiders” in the Edina, Minnesota, Airbnb property, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune.

On June 21, 2024, Vasquez called 911 multiple times. The first call was due to Simonetti banging pots and pans while Vasquez was studying for the bar exam, and the second was when the internet service was cut off, the complaint indicated.

A frightened Vasquez made a third call to 911, reporting that Simonetti and a man had entered the basement unit by dismantling the door, prompting her to hide in her room and leave her laptop at the bottom of the stairs to capture the events.

In the video, the noise of banging pots and pans and a woman shouting “Hallelujah!” can be heard from upstairs, as shown on KARE 11. Various small items are seen being thrown down the stairs before Simonetti yells “Spider infestation!” and a tarantula in a plastic container is dumped onto the staircase, the video reveals.

Officers responding to the situation discovered “pins, tacks, nails, a live tarantula, which was moving around, what appeared to be the contents of a terrarium dumped down the stairs, and several small toys,” according to the complaint.

Simonetti, who was a Republican candidate for Hennepin County commissioner at the time, argued that she was frustrated with Vasquez’s refusal to vacate the unit, NBC News reported. She accused Vasquez of being a nuisance by talking loudly on the phone at night.

She admitted to purchasing the tarantula from a pet store after Vasquez “barricaded herself in my basement like she had no intention of leaving,” NBC News reported in 2024.

Vasquez expressed that she “desperately wanted to [leave]” but felt trapped due to the “hostile environment” created by Simonetti.

Simonetti represented herself at trial, having parted ways with her attorney. She attributed her loss to a lack of understanding of court procedures.

“I was just outplayed. That’s all,” she told the Minnesota Star Tribune following the guilty verdict.

Simonetti is due for sentencing on May 1.