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Nov 16, 2023

I snagged an $8K ‘bubble’ sofa in the trash — but I’m no ‘bed bug queen’

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One man's $8,000 trash has become this woman's treasure — and the reason haters are trashing her social media.

When a trendy New Yorker found that a $7,985 Roche Bobois curved bubble sofa had been abandoned on the sidewalk of a city street, she cleaned the jettisoned finery and moved it into her apartment.

But grossed-out grippers online have cruelly dubbed her the "bed bug queen" for salvaging the stained and tattered piece of garbage, which trolls say is likely infested with vermin and covered in excrement.

"This is me finding an $8,000 couch in the middle of the street," said NYC native Amanda Joy in the voiceover of her trending trash-retrieval video, which she titled "Got my dream couch for free."

The controversial clip, which has scared up more than 150 million views between TikTok and Twitter, begins with Joy finding the designer seat on the curb, kicking away the dirt and debris it had accumulated while outside and making arrangements to take the dumped décor home.

Her heart for reclaiming discarded goods is similar to that of NYC trash-diving influencer Anna Sacks, known digitally as the "trash walker," who has virally revived luxe items and healthy foods throughout the city, as well as that of a Texas mom who earned $5,000 in seconds by dumpster diving.

In Joy's case, however, her rubbish restoration seemed to be rooted in hipster hedonism.

"I called my dad, begging him to come pick it up because I couldn't just leave that couch there," said the Gen Z in her video.

Joy went on to explain that her father agreed to transport the sullied sofa to his work studio, where they exhaustively cleaned it with soap, water, a vacuum and brushes. And after leaving freshly washed the lounger to dry for a few days, Joy's dad and boyfriend moved it into her house.

got my dream couch for free🥹 #nyc #nycapartment

"The couch in its full glory," raved Joy over the posh piece, "looks really nice and fits perfectly in my apartment."

The chicness that the luxury item added to her living room notwithstanding, critter-conscious critics on TikTok argued that Joy had made a terrible mistake by taking the junked unit home.

"It looks so good but I’m SO SCARED about it being BED BUG CENTRAL," wrote a worried commentator — suggesting the scrapped furniture was filled with blood-sucking creepy-crawlers.

"Yasss bed bug queen," a separate naysayer said sarcastically.

"I’m sorry I would never bring furniture from outside inside especially in New York," another detractor penned, which was followed by an equally pessimistic comment that read: "No one throws away a $8k couch for no reason. Something happened on that couch or something's living in it."

However, amidst the cloudburst of negatively beneath Joy's clip were fans who applauded her for recycling the rare find.

"Wowww the Roche Bobois bubble couch is selling right now for like $9k. Wild to find on the street!," exclaimed an impressed audience member.

"THIS IS SUCH A WIN!!!!!! it looks so good," cheered another supporter.

"Living in New York is like living in a treasure box," added another.

Replying to @Habibi the long awaited couch update 😙 #nyc #couch

And Joy agreed.

In a subsequent TikTok post, she explained that the swanky sofa had been ditched on the side of a street in front of a "very rich building" for less than 24 hours before she claimed it.

She insisted, "Rich people throw out all their furniture all the time, because they get new furniture every other year," intimating that there's a slim chance the couch was scrapped due to a bug infestation.

"I took the opportunity and brought it in," said Joy, before offering viewers a glimpse of the Roche Bobois tag on the couch, proving its authenticity.

And to trolls who have pestered her with comments about the sofa being overrun with pests, Joy slyly remarked, "I can just tell who has bed bugs and who don't."