US Senate candidate Marisa Simonetti convicted of assault after hurling tarantula into Airbnb to evict ‘squatter’
A candidate for the US Senate has been convicted of throwing a tarantula down the stairs of her basement in a Home Alone-inspired bid to scare an alleged squatter.
Marisa Simonetti, 32, who is running as an independent in the upcoming Senate election in Minnesota, was convicted on Friday of misdemeanor counts of domestic assault, harassment and disorderly conduct.
The charges stemmed from the tarantula incident, which occurred in 2024. At the time, Simonetti told NBC News that she got the idea from the 1990 movie Home Alone, starring then-child actor Macaulay Culkin.
In the film, Culkin’s character, Kevin McCallister, terrorizes burglars with a series of Rube Goldberg-style improvised traps, and at one point, the child releases a tarantula that crawls across one of the burglars’ faces.
‘I’m not a physically violent person, and 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.
‘If I’m scared or hurt, I try and make jokes. And I was so scared, I was just like, I didn’t know what to do, and so, yeah, I got the spider.’
Simonetti claimed that 32-year-old attorney Jackie Vasquez had been ‘squatting’ in her home, but the victim insisted that she had paid $1,500 to stay there through Airbnb.
The dispute between the two women began shortly after Vasquez moved into Simonetti’s basement.
Marisa Simonetti, 32, was convicted of misdemeanor charges on Friday for throwing a live tarantula down the stairs of her basement to get a woman she said was squatting there out
The tarantula that Simonetti released down the stairs is pictured. She later called her actions humorous and said she was a ‘silly goose’
Simonetti said that she had canceled the Airbnb reservation after just a couple of weeks because Vasquez had been sending her multi-paragraph texts and had been shouting on the phone late at night.
The US Senate hopeful also claimed that Vasquez refused to leave the basement and told NBC News that the unwanted tenant had ‘barricaded herself’ inside.
Vasquez claimed that she ‘desperately wanted’ to leave but was unable to because Simonetti had created a ‘hostile environment.’
Tensions came to a head after Simonetti accused Vasquez of intentionally closing a door on her arm.
Vasquez claimed that Simonetti had been trying to forcibly enter the basement and that she unintentionally closed the door on Simonetti’s arm after telling her she was trespassing.
Police were called to the house three times that day, and Simonetti told NBC News she decided to purchase the tarantula after ‘the police didn’t help.’
Vasquez said that Simonetti and a man later took apart the door to the basement to gain access, which scared her. She went to hide in her room and left her laptop recording at the base of the stairs.
The laptop recorded a shocking video of Simonetti blasting Christian music while screaming, banging pots and pans and unleashing the spider down the stairs.
Simonetti said she was inspired by the movie Home Alone, in which then-child actor Macaulay Culkin’s character releases a tarantula that crawls across a burglar’s face. A still of Culkin’s character in the movie is pictured
Simonetti claimed that 32-year-old attorney Jackie Vasquez was squatting in the basement and refusing to leave, but Vasquez insisted she paid $1,500 through Airbnb to stay there
The video also captured many small objects being dumped down the stairs, which is reminiscent of other scenes in Home Alone.
‘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’ were found on the stairs by responding officers, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Simonetti later said that she had no other choice because Vasquez was squatting and refusing to leave. She also called her actions humorous and said she was ‘a silly goose.’
‘I mean, there is an element of humor to that movie, and at the end, what was I supposed to do?’ Simonetti told KMSP at the time.
‘And at the end of the day, “unhinged” got her out of the house.’
Simonetti was arrested after the tarantula incident but was soon released without bond, and by the time she returned to her home, Vasquez had moved out.
The Senate candidate was found guilty of her misdemeanor charges after parting with her lawyer and representing herself in court.
She told the Minnesota Star Tribune that she lost the case because she did not fully understand court procedures.
During the ordeal between the two women in 2024, Vasquez had been running as a Republican for another political office, Hennepin County Commissioner. She lost in that election.
Simonetti said that her Home Alone-inspired antics were successful at getting Vasquez to move out. Culkin is pictured as his character, Kevin McCallister, in the movie
Following Simonetti’s arrest due to the tarantula incident, Randy Sutter, the chair for the 3rd Congressional District Republicans, said she ‘has only served to embarrass the Republican Party.’
Simonetti has also had other legal troubles in the past. In 2023, she was accused of fraud for allegedly running up an $80,000 bill on her ex-fiancé’s credit card. That case was dropped after being settled in court.
